Treacherous Affairs - Scisaac Teen Wolf
by BekkaChaos
Summary: This is the Sequel to Dangerous Liaisons. It is also a Scisaac novel but will probably end up being half Sterek anyway :) Set Two months after DL, Scott and Isaac are still settling into their relationship with just a few minor hiccups, he still hasnt told his mom and they still havent taken that final physical step. Can they work it out or is something more sinister on its way?
1. Chapter 1

_Treacherous Affairs_

"Come on, she's never even going to know." Isaac said as he and Scott sat surrounded by books at his kitchen table.

"Isaac, no. Seriously, this is my kitchen." Scott said, shaking his head.

"So? We've done it in Derek's kitchen."

"Yeah, that's Derek's kitchen, where he does god knows what else. This is _my_ kitchen; I eat dinner here with _my mom_." Scott hissed, pretending to read.

"Oh come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Isaac waggled his eyebrows and Scott shook his head without looking up.

"She could get home any time." He said.

"And we can hear for like a mile, plus maybe it's time she found out." Isaac managed to sneak that one in there and Scott looked up with a stern face.

"Not like _that_."

It had been just over two months since they had first got together and Scott was still cautious about telling his mother. She could handle him being a werewolf so why wouldn't she be able to handle him being in love with another guy? Isaac didn't know why he wouldn't tell her but he tried not to push the matter too much. He knew that they were going to have to say something at some point.

"Don't you love me?" Isaac pouted out his bottom lip and Scott let out a huffing sound.

"You know I love you, that doesn't mean I have to just blurt that out to her."

He knew that Scott loved him; of course he knew that, he said it enough. He was just a little cranky that he couldn't tell her about them. Granted, if Isaac's dad was around he wouldn't be rushing off to tell him, but Scott's mom was different.

She even let Isaac stay there for a while when he was sick of living with Stiles and Derek, who had no regard for the other inhabitants of the house.

Either way he was going to let it slide, again, because they had been at school all day and studying all afternoon, and he had plenty of time to convince Scott later.

"You want to go upstairs then?" He raised an eyebrow and Scott tried to hide his smile as he looked up from his book.

He tossed it onto the table and they both scrambled away and up the stairs to Scott's bedroom. They had barely made it through the door before they were tumbling back onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.

Isaac grabbed Scott by his wrists and pinned him back, grazing his teeth over his jaw line and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. Scott bucked up with his hips and struggled to get out from under Isaac, not enough to actually make a difference.

"Hey, who said you could do that?" Isaac growled, his lips slowly caressing Scott's neck.

"I didn't think you'd mind…" Scott gave another few bucks; grinding their hips together and making Isaac bite his lip.

"You want to be in control, get on top." Isaac smirked and Scott laughed.

Isaac pushed his shirt up and licked him from his navel to his sternum, pausing only to pull his nipple in between his lips, causing Scott to let out a low groan. He flicked his tongue back and forth and Scott parted his lips and exhaled heavily.

"God you're hot…" Isaac whispered and Scott grinned.

"Don't…" He panted.

"You are…" Isaac said as he shimmied down Scott's sweats and took a hold of his solid extended cock, and gave it a few short tugs.

Scott inhaled sharply. "And you're way too good at that."

"Tell me what you want me to do then." Isaac improvised and Scott smiled.

"I thought you were in…_ oh_… in control…"

"Well I know what I'd do to you… if you want…" He felt Scott tense up a little and hoped to god he wouldn't pull away and make him stop.

"Uh… this, this is good… actually I'd rather you put your mouth to better use." He said, giving Isaac a sensual grin.

"I can do that." Isaac said, slightly disheartened but not enough to stop him.

He pressed his tongue flat against the base and slowly slid it upwards until he was swirling it around the tip. Taking it into his mouth he wrapped his hand around him and gave a few pumps as he slowly sucked on the head.

He pressed his tongue against the tip as he takes more of him in.

"_Oh Fuck_ _–_" Scott said, lifting his hips to give Isaac even more.

Isaac couldn't help letting out a groan as he took Scott's cock all the way to the back of his throat and Scott let his toes curl at the feel of it.

Isaac's hands reached around to grab Scott's ass cheeks firmly, using them to pull his hips into him, slamming his own lips down until they couldn't go any further. He reached into his own jeans and took hold of his cock as Scott gripped his fingers in his hair.

Pulling back Scott sat up until they were both on their knees. "Let me take care of that." He said huskily and reached into Isaac's jeans, taking his cock in his hand and rubbing his thumb in the hot sticky pre come on the head.

Isaac grabbed Scott tightly by the waist and buried his face in his neck. He took his hand and brought it back to his shaft so they were both pumping one another furiously. Isaac lifted his chin to kiss Scott through his laboured breathing. Their lips were pressed together but it was hardly a kiss, more the sharing of breath, the intimacy was undeniable.

It didn't take long for them to reach climax, almost simultaneously before falling back beside one another in a hot mess. Scott smiled in his elated state and Isaac reached out to take his hand, lacing their fingers together.

"You know, we should get back to study." Scott said.

"You can't be that concerned about your grades, it's only week one." Isaac grinned.

"Hey, I promised my mom I would try."

Isaac sighed. "Yeah, okay then. Meet you down there?" He said as he got up to walk to the bathroom.

"Are… are you okay?" Scott sat up and asked with a tilt of his head.

Isaac gave him a grin. "Yeah but I think your mom's back and I need to clean up a bit."

Scott laughed. "Yeah okay."

Isaac headed out of the room and into the bathroom where he locked the door as he straightened himself up. He sighed to himself. He and Scott worked so well together but something was missing. They still hadn't made that final step to physically complete the relationship.

Isaac knows that it is a big step, especially for them, but he's starting to feel like Scott is ashamed. It doesn't help that he doesn't want to tell his mother either. _Maybe it's something to do with Allison_, he thought. He was pretty sure that she didn't know about them yet, that was just Boyd, Erica, Stiles and Derek. Jackson probably had a clue but he hadn't said anything and Isaac almost wished that it was out in the open.

Maybe that would make Scott accept their relationship for exactly what it was but at the moment, he seemed to be holding back.

That was not the case for Derek and Stiles.

"Oh God… _Derek_!" Stiles' voice echoed through the loft as Derek tilted his hips up and thrust himself even deeper into him.

His ankles rested on Derek's shoulders, his jeans pulled down to mid-thigh and Derek's only unzipped enough to do as he pleased.

Stiles had come back from school to find Derek doing sit ups. Well, he was hanging from the rafters doing air sit ups but still. It's not like it took much to get Derek in the mood, all it really took was one hot kiss and next thing he knew Derek was more than a few inches deep inside him.

"You're fucking amazing…" Stiles panted.

"You never shut up do you?" Derek said with a circle of his hips that made Stiles' groan get caught in his throat and come out in a much higher pitch.

"You… you love it."

Derek's lips made a crescent shape and he let out a growl as he pulled himself out and lay back on the couch for Stiles to lower himself back onto him. There were cracks in his voice as he felt Stiles' heat engulf him once more.

It was only a few thrusts of his hips before his stomach had tightened and the waves of pleasure ripped through him. Stiles only had to rub his cock against his hand once before he was coming too, making a mess of Derek's chest, not that he seemed to mind.

Had they been upstairs in Derek's giant comfy bed they may have laid like that for a while but Stiles climbed off and lay on his back on the floor, unable to use his legs completely yet.

"You know… if you do that every time I get home from school… it might make the idea of sitting through another day… bearable." He panted.

Derek's head may still have been spinning but he managed to raise an eyebrow and look down at him from the couch. "_Might_?"

Stiles chuckled. "Well your game might be slipping a bit Derek… yesterday was like… unbelievable but today was… well, I believed it." He smiled, knowing that it was stirring Derek up even if there wasn't any truth to it.

"I didn't even see you yesterday, remember?"

"Really? Oh… well it must have been a dream then. Still, dream Derek is upping his game, maybe you should too."

"You're delirious, and that's good enough for me." He said, standing up off the couch.

"That's all you're aiming for? Good enough? Hey, where are you going?" Stiles sat up, his body still tingling.

"To shower Stiles." He said as he walked towards the stairs.

"Wait up!"

They both headed up the stairs, Derek shutting all the possible doors in between him and Stiles, just to make it difficult. When he got to the bathroom he pulled down his jeans and kicked them to the side, groaning when he saw the pile that had formed on one side. It was a mix of clothes from Stiles and Isaac, and possibly even one of Scott's shirts and he wished he had gone to the ensuite rather than the communal teenager bathroom.

When Stiles made it in Derek gave him a sharp glare.

"Who said this was your laundry basket?" He said pointing to the clothes as he stepped under the hot water.

"Sorry, didn't think you'd mind." Stiles shrugged.

"You're a bunch of slobs, all of you. Erica was here for five minutes the other day and I could follow the line of crumbs from her potato chip bag to the kitchen." He grunted.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, I'll clean them up if you want." Derek narrowed his eyes as Stiles stepped into the shower. "Okay, clearly you want."

Derek turned his back on him, lathering up his hands with the bar of soap. Stiles tilted his head and he knew that something was on his mind. Obviously it had to be. Those clothes had been there for a week and he hasn't said anything. Stiles also found it strange that he had been exercising when he showed up, he had called first to tell him that he was about ten minutes away so he wouldn't have started a new work out. Not to mention he was working out in his jeans.

_He's been strange for the last few days actually_, Stiles thought. He put his arms around Derek's waist, almost expecting him to flinch away but he didn't, instead he gently caressed Stiles' arms until he was lacing their fingers together with a sigh.

"You know I didn't mean any of that stuff I said before, right?" Stiles asked, pressing his lips gently into Derek's skin.

"I know you didn't, I have no doubt in my ability to please you." He said, snapping a little but not letting go of Stiles' hands.

"So what's up then Mr Confidence?" Stiles asked with a smile and Derek shook his head.

"It's nothing alright?"

"Derek…" He said nothing, just stared down at their interlinked hands. "Derek you promised." Stiles muttered and Derek rolled his eyes, letting go to turn around and face him.

He pulled Stiles against him and held on to his hips as Stiles looped his arms around his neck. "You know I don't do this very well." He said through gritted teeth.

"Actually I've thought you've been amazing." Stiles shrugged, rubbing gently at the base of Derek's neck.

"You don't know any better." He muttered.

"True… but I know you're trying to talk to me more." He said.

"There's just… there's just a lot going on at the moment."

Stiles wasn't too sure what he meant, with barely any supernatural worries in two months things have seemed eerily calm and settled. He really hoped that wasn't a bad omen.

"Like what?" He asked.

"Would you calm down? Your heart is beating faster than it was when we were on the couch out there." Derek said, noticing the worry on Stiles' face.

"I highly doubt that."

"_Stiles…_" Derek grumbled.

"Okay, okay, what's going on Derek?" He asked, finally getting rid of his sarcasm and humour to get down to it.

"It's your senior year, you've got college coming… it just…" He grunted, absolutely hating this talking thing but he knew that it made Stiles happy so he tried. "It brings back memories is all." He said through gritted teeth.

Stiles nodded and pulled him in tightly, nuzzling into his neck and Derek did the same. Stiles knew that he was trying and he didn't want to push him to say any more so he just waited, his lips gently pecking Derek's shoulder and his thumb caressing the back of his head.

"It's been too quiet over the summer." He added and Stiles chuckled a little.

"Why can't anyone just be happy that we aren't fighting off deadly creatures for once? It doesn't have to be on the go all the time." He said.

"I know, it just seems like it's going too well." Derek said.

"Tell me about it." Stiles mumbled and this time it was Derek's turn to laugh.

"If you're going to get all sappy I swear I'll get out." He said.

Stiles looked up at him with the dopiest grin on his face. "I love you Derek." He said cheekily.

Derek's jaw set in a hard line and he rolled his eyes.

"Come on… you promised not to be such a sour wolf." Stiles smiled.

"No, I said I would forcibly get you to stop calling me that." He said.

"Come on, I won't say it again for the rest of the day."

"That's really the best I get isn't it?" Derek raised an eyebrow and Stiles grinned.

Derek shook his head and leant in to kiss his lips softly before mumbling quietly against them.

"I love you too."

Isaac and Scott walked down the stairs; all smiles. The chuckled to one another as they walked back into the kitchen.

"Hey boys…" They both jumped a mile when they saw her standing with her arms folded and hip popped staring back at them.

"Mom! God, you scared me." Scott said.

"Why, what are you hiding?"

Scott's eyes widened. "Nothing!"

"Listen Scott, if you want to go up to your room to play video games that's fine but can you at least clear off my damn table?" she said and Isaac heard Scott's heartbeat lower substantially, making him sigh a little.

"Yeah mom, sorry." He smiled.

"Isaac you staying for dinner?" Melissa asked.

"I would love to." He said, giving Scott a smile that made his ears turn slightly pink.

"Great, I'll grab out another plate and when you're done studying make some room for the food please." She said as she headed to the fridge to grab out some food for dinner.

"You want to finish this chemistry stuff then?" Scott asked Isaac.

He shrugged. "Not really but I guess we should."

Scott sat back down and fell straight back into it while Isaac made faces at having to study but he knew it would probably end up better for him anyway.

Isaac always loved having dinner with Scott and his mom, she made him feel so welcome and it was the closest thing to having a family that he could remember. After he helped her clean-up he and Scott went upstairs to _actually_ play some video games. When Melissa walked past the bedroom door she poked her head through.

"Don't stay up too late, you've got school tomorrow remember." She said.

"Promise I'll try and sleep by eleven." Scott grinned.

"Make sure that you do." Melissa said with a narrowing of her eyebrows.

"Good night Ms McCall." Isaac smiled.

She gave him one in return. "Good night Isaac." She said as she left the doorway and headed for her bed room.

"How late is it?" Isaac asked.

Scott shrugged. "Late enough." He dropped his controller on the floor and stretched out with a yawn.

"Tired?"

He shrugged again. "I guess, more just not looking forward to school."

"Hey you're the one who committed to doing some actual study this year." Isaac said.

"I know but I promised my mom I would, after all this wolf stuff I think she just wishes I would do some normal teenager stuff."

"You realise that normal teenagers are lazy and don't get good grades because they're too busy being out with their friends, right?" He teased.

"Yeah, their human friends."

"You have human friends."

"Who? Stiles, Lydia and Allison?"

"Would you count Danny?"

"Maybe, I don't know, he's Jackson's friend and Jackson doesn't want him involved in werewolf stuff. I guess it's kind of nice to keep that separate from someone and not have to worry about it."

Isaac nodded. "Is that why you don't want to tell her about us? Because there's already been so much change?" He added slowly.

Scott turned to him with a pleading look and Isaac felt guilty again. "I do want to tell her." He said.

Isaac nodded without looking at him and Scott sighed. He crawled closer and rested his chin on Isaac's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around him and just stared into his eyes as Isaac tried not to look at him.

"I just don't want her to feel like everything is changing all at once you know?" He murmured and Isaac sighed.

He turned his head slowly and looked straight into Scott's big brown apologetic eyes. "Yeah Scott, I know."

Scott knew that he wasn't okay with it but he knew that Isaac wouldn't get mad or try to argue if he said he needed more time. He was wonderful in that way, in almost every way. He tilted his head to give him a soft peck on the lips before he nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

"I love you." He said.

Isaac kissed his ear and rested his cheek against Scott's hair. "I know that too." He whispered. "Let's just go to bed then." He said and Scott reluctantly pulled away, getting up to shut his door.

Isaac unbuttoned his jeans and kicked them off, leaving them lying beside the bed as he climbed in. Scott did the same, also pulling his shirt over his head before crawling in beside him.

He took Isaac by the waist and pulled him back into him, plastering their bodies together and slipping his arm around to tangle with Isaac's fingers. He kissed his shoulder blades through the thin fabric and Isaac closed his eyes, lifting their hands up so that he could brush Scott's fingers against his lips and taking one of his fingertips between his lips and giving it the slightest sweep with his tongue.

Scott smiled. "That's not going to help me sleep." He said and Isaac grinned wickedly.

"Hey, I said let's go to bed, I never said anything about sleeping."


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Melissa was standing downstairs stirring her coffee when she heard the two boys upstairs staring to argue, loudly this time.

She couldn't quite make out what they were saying but she knew that there was something wrong. _It's probably just some teenage nonsense that I'm far too old for now_, she thought, _or it could be some werewolf nonsense that I really don't need to deal with_. Either way she just sat down and tried not to pry as she read the morning paper.

She heard a door slam and some heavy feet that she knew to be her son's come galumphing down the stairs. He had his bag slung over his shoulder and a scowl on his face as he stormed past the kitchen.

"Morning Scott!" She called.

"I'll see you after school mom!" He called back and she flinched at the sound of the front door slamming behind him.

He's always been a door slammer when he gets angry. When he's just annoyed he gives you a blank stare and just shuts the door on you. Melissa thought about it again and heard the second set of feet come walking down the stairs, slower this time.

Isaac walked into the doorway and gave Melissa a weak smile. "Sorry about all the noise." He said.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

Isaac nodded. "Yeah, just some pack stuff." He lied.

Melissa sighed, "I thought that might be it. I swear I'll never get used to this werewolf thing." She chuckled a little and Isaac just nodded again. She cocked her eyebrow at him. "Are you sure he's okay?" She asked again.

"Yeah, he'll be fine."

"Are_ you_ okay?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm great, just fine."

"You know you can talk to me if you need to Isaac, I know you've had some bad things happen in your life and… well if you do need anyone to talk to I really don't mind." She gave him a smile but unfortunately that just made him feel worse.

"I know, thanks Ms McCall." He said as he hitched up his backpack and headed for the door.

"Teenage boys…" she muttered to herself before taking a sip of her coffee.

_Stiles – _

Last day of the first week, I am seriously starting to wish it was over already because this year is going to be a bitch. Not to mention that we have prom coming up and I am totally not going to be able to take Derek.

I mean the school is a little more flexible about that kind of stuff now, but Derek is like, in his twenties and I'm still seventeen so they're probably not going to be so hot on that. It's mostly because Derek would rather die than come to the prom with me because he just doesn't do that.

His idea of going out for dinner is buying take-out and sitting in the forest or other such uninhabited places. Don't get me wrong it's fucking awesome but dinner with actual plates would be nice sometime too.

Anyway he practically kicked me out of the loft earlier because he had some super-secret werewolf shiz-nit to see to. He wouldn't tell me what it was but I seriously hope that Peter has nothing to do with it.

After everything he did earlier in the summer, what with the manipulation and evil-doings and all, Derek gave him a pretty good beating to put him in his place. I've got to say that was one of the highlights of my summer.

I mean he didn't want Derek and me to be together because he would feel less powerful next to Derek who had completed a trigger bond. I hope he feels a little less powerful around me too; I've been ready for anything since we sealed the bond. I still can't get used to that, it sounds so weird rolling off my tongue but Derek says that if I describe it in any other way he'll rip my throat out, yeah, you guessed it, with his teeth.

He's quite possibly the sexiest man alive but he really needs to find some new comebacks. I may have mentioned that to him once or twice to no avail.

Wait, where was I? Right, this year is going to suck.

Senior year means SAT's and actually having to study for once. Why did I have to get myself a sexy distracting boyfriend _this_ year?

I'm only just getting to school now – after having been kicked out of the loft for the werewolf convention – so I shut the door on the jeep and headed into the school where the bell was about to ring and people were slowly milling about and heading to their classes.

I had chemistry up first with Scott. I walked around to the labs and found the right room, heading inside and giving Scott a smile that he didn't return as I walked over to him.

Oh good, he had his sad-werewolf look on today. Something's got to be up.

"Hey man what's up?" I said as I sat down in the chair beside him.

"Nothing." He said flatly.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"I'm fine." He said, not looking up.

He is most definitely not fine, in fact he looks kind of grumpy. "What's the matter Scott? Cat got your tongue?" I grinned and waggled my eyebrows a bit.

He looked up really slowly with a glare that would give Derek a run for his money. I put my hands up in defeat.

"Alright, okay, I'll shut up." I said, turning to the front of the class and tapping my foot under the desk.

After a few minutes of that he clenched his fist and looked up slowly again and my smile dropped pretty much instantly. "Really Stiles?" He said impatiently.

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a sarcastic 'sorry' face before turning back to my page as Mr Harris walked in. This is going to be a long day if he's going to be in this kind of mood.

The rest of the class went by pretty slowly. He didn't laugh at any of my jokes and he was out the door the second the bell had gone. I gathered my stuff and Danny walked over to me from his desk.

"Hey, I noticed Scott's pretty grumpy today, any chance he and Jackson are having the same issues?" He asked as I shoved my book into my backpack.

"Honestly Danny I couldn't tell you because I got like five words out of him today. Why, what's going on with Jackson?"

"He's just been snapping at me for the last few days."

"Isn't that basically your average day for him?" I smirked.

"To you maybe." I nodded with a bit of a shrug because hey, he was right. "I just figured since he's been hanging around with you guys a lot lately you might know why he's been in a bad mood."

"I don't know Danny, I don't think Scott's thing is at all related."

He sighed, clearly worried about Jackson. "I just barely see him anymore, it's like he's completely turned into someone else."

I felt kind of sorry for the guy. Apart from me, no one has actually told him what the hell has been going on, and even then he didn't believe me because we were both drunk and it was a story about freaking werewolves. There was no way anyone would believe it unless they actually saw it, maybe that's why I haven't told my dad, I don't really want him to have to see it anyway.

"How about you come over to Derek's place tomorrow night? We're going to have a few drinks and hopefully that'll make Jackson a little… fluffier." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Fluffier?"

"Okay, so maybe that is the last thing I would call him but seriously, Derek will get some booze and we'll make sure they perk up a bit." I shrugged.

He looked a little sceptical but he gave me a smile anyway. "Sure, just text me tomorrow then." He gave me a smack on the shoulder and headed out of class.

I winced a little but hoisted up my bag and headed out for the rest of the day.

It wasn't that bad but Scott was just as cranky as ever, it wasn't until after the final bell that he sent me a message asking me to meet him at his place because he'd been an a-hole all day. He didn't say that exactly but he meant it.

His place was on the way to mine so I figured I'd just head on over. He might not be there but I know a thing or two about breaking into Scott's house, I've done it multiple times.

I drove over and parked out the front on the grass, hopping out and walking up to the door. I knocked a couple of times but no one answered so I guess Scott isn't home yet. I wandered around to the side and started climbing up the guard on the side of the house to get to his room when I heard the door open.

"Oh shit." I said as I jumped back down and stumbled, Ms McCall yelling in fright when she saw me.

"Holy crap Stiles! What the hell are you doing?!" She held a hand to her heart and exhaled heavily.

"Uh… I was here to see Scott." I said.

"He's not home yet! Didn't you just spend the whole day at school together?"

"You know you're still yelling right?"

"I know Stiles!" I flinched and nodded, twiddling my thumbs a little. "Sorry," she said with a breath to calm herself down. "Come in, through the door this time." She held it open and I walked back up the steps and into the foyer.

"Sorry for scaring you out of your mind." I said.

"It's fine, you I'm used to. Did you want something to drink?" She asked as we walked into the kitchen and I sat down at the table.

"Uh, water's good." I said.

I watched her pour two glasses before setting one down in front of me and sitting in the chair opposite Okay, something's got to be going on.

"Thanks."

"Stiles…"

"Yeah?" I asked, taking a sip.

"Is there something going on with Scott?" She asked and I took an even longer sip.

"Uh, no. No, not… that I know of. Why?"

"_Stiles_…" She raised an eyebrow at me and damn it how does she know I'm lying?

I shook my head and made an 'uh ah' noise to which she narrowed her eyes.

"So there is _something_, you just don't want to tell me?"

"No! I mean yeah, wait, no…" I fumbled.

I don't think she knows about Scott and Isaac yet and I am _so_ not the one who should be telling her.

"Stiles if something is up can you please just tell me so I can stop worrying about getting a call in the middle of the night saying that he's… cut in half or something? He's been acting strange for weeks now." She pleaded and I sighed.

I don't want her to have to worry when there is nothing going on. Well, nothing in the werewolf sense anyway.

"There's nothing going on that's going to get him cut in half, I promise." She seemed to relax a little at that.

"Then what is going on? We might not talk as much as we used to but I know when there's something bothering him."

"Yeah I know, he's not so great at hiding his emotions is he?"

She chuckled to herself and nodded. "Well I'm afraid he gets that from me, and you're not going to say anything are you?"

I shook my head. "This is kind of Scott's thing. I don't really want to undercut him."

She sighed. "Just so long as he does tell me if there _is_ something serious going on."

"Promise I will take a fist to him if he keeps all this secrecy up." I put a hand to my heart and she scoffed.

"And you think that'll help do you?"

"Nah, it would probably hurt me before it hurt him." She laughed and I heard the door click as Scott finally made it home.

He walked into the kitchen and raised an eyebrow at the two of us sitting down having a conversation.

"What's going on?" He asked suspiciously.

"You tell me." Melissa said, looking from Scott to me and I gave the two of them a super awkward grin.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to stop him from breaking in to this place." She said as she stood up and walked over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I'm starting work in an hour so I'm going to get ready, there's money on the counter for dinner. I take it you're staying Stiles?" She said without looking back at me.

"If you're offering free food then yeah."

She laughed and tapped Scott's shoulder before heading upstairs.

"What the hell did you tell her?" He hissed the second he heard her door shut.

"I told her everything she needed to know." I said.

His eyes grew wide. "You what?! What the hell Stiles!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy wolfy, I didn't tell her anything about you and Isaac, all I said was that your life isn't in danger. Maybe you should tell her about the two of you before you completely crack." I said, holding out an arm to get him to back up.

He ran a hand through his hair and paced back and forth a few times.

"Jesus Scott, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" He snapped. "Sorry, I just – I'm stressed about this year and then there's the whole telling my mom thing… I just don't want to disappoint her you know?" He said and I nodded a little.

"Hey, my dad was actually proud that I could land someone like Derek. It was seriously the weirdest thing ever." I said.

"Really?" He asked hopefully.

"Look, Scott, your mom is just about as cool as they come; telling her that you're dating Isaac isn't going to kill her." I said.

"I know but it's not just that. I mean how am I going to do it? There are so many other things to worry about anyway, I just don't want everything to change because it's not like I expected to be a freaking werewolf during my last few years of high school!"

"Scott, calm down, just take a few deep breaths and come over to Derek's tomorrow night to drink and unwind." I said, realising that I probably should tell him that I'm volunteering his house for a bunch of teenagers.

"Derek's having a party?" He asked.

"Well, no, I'm inviting people to Derek's because everyone seems to have issues right now." What is with all these people and their problems, my life is the best it's ever been.

"Does he know that?"

"I'm dealing with it, okay? Just figure out how you can stay calm, god, you're like about to bite my head off."

"Sorry." He sighed. "I just had a fight with Isaac this morning so everything is-"

"So that's why you were a jack ass all day? I get it, starting the day with a fight just gets you all wound up and stuff." I shrugged, knowing exactly how that feels.

He shot me a smile. "Thanks Stiles." He looked over to the money on the counter. "So… pizza?"

"Uh, obviously." Come on Scott, like there were any other options.

Isaac –

I sat in the chair at his desk just waiting for him to get home. I know I'm just looking for a reason to avoid Scott but I kind of also want someone to talk to about this and he is the only one who will listen and give me some actually helpful advice, albeit mostly sarcastic. Derek just gets to a point where 'I don't care' is the only thing that comes out of his mouth so he's basically useless unless it comes down to werewolf stuff.

"Come on Stiles, where the hell are you?" I grumbled.

He's probably at Derek's, but I don't want to drag Derek into it, I share enough with him living in that house, then again, I share plenty with Stiles by proxy.

I checked my phone and it had just gone nine. This was a stupid idea, since when is he ever home? As I was revelling in my idiocy I heard a car pull into the street and looked out the window to see Stiles' jeep pulling into the drive way.

He shut her off and climbed out, walking casually to the door. I could hear him throw his keys on the bench before heading up the stairs. Crap, this is going to scare the shit out of him isn't it?

As the door handle opened I looked away and waited for the scream, which came out as more of a yelp than anything else.

"Holy freaking Jesus! Isaac! What the hell? Can't you werewolves ever use the front door?" He said, his heartbeat racing as he collapsed on his bed.

"You know I've heard stories about how you never use the front door." I smiled.

"Only at Scott's place because his mom kept locking the front door." He grumbled.

I shook my head with a smile and breathed in deeply. "You smell like him."

Stiles let out a grunting sound and sat up to look at me. "If you're going to start complaining about him then go right ahead, I already know the story."

"Did he tell you that I would be complaining about him?"

"No Isaac, he didn't, he just told me about your fight this morning and I figured you were going to do the same."

"So did he complain about me?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Of course he did, you guys had a fight, he had to vent it to someone and apparently I'm _everybody's_ someone."

I sighed and sat down beside him. "Sorry for not knocking, or even waiting for you to get back."

"It's fine, I'm used to Derek doing it and never tire of having heart attacks." I chuckled. "Go on then, get it out. You want him to tell his mom and he thinks it's too soon." He made a hand gesture to get me to continue.

"It's been two months and he thinks it's going to change everything. I mean I know his mom, you know his mom, do you really think she'll hate it _that _much?" He went to say something but I think I may have cut over him. "He's not going to say anything unless I keep bugging him about it is he? That's what he does and it frustrates me all to hell!" His mouth opened again but I couldn't stop. "I know what you're going to say and you're right, it's _his_ mom and it's not my place to tell her or get angry or whatever but I am so tired of having to hide it. You know I don't even think Allison knows, and he has no idea how that makes me feel."

"Are you done? Can I speak now?" He said and I nodded. "I was actually going to say that I agree with you."

"Well that's just because – wait, what?" I said, I didn't expect him to say that.

"I said I agree with you. I have no idea why he's not telling his mom, Allison I can kind of understand because… well… never mind that-"

"What Stiles?" I said.

He sighed and shook his head. "Well I don't know if he's totally over her or not."

I looked away, knowing that he was probably right but not wanting to think about it. Maybe that was a factor in my other problem as well. What is there to expect when I basically forced myself on him when he was still pining after her.

"Sorry if that kind of kills your buzz." He said with a sheepish look on his face.

"It's okay, my buzz has been kind of dead all day."

"You know that trying to force him into telling his mom really isn't going to help. Neither is snapping at him."

"He told you everything huh?" I asked, feeling my cheeks get a little hotter.

"Yeah, you wouldn't stop bringing it up and then you got mad when he said he needed more time. Then there was some yelling and he stormed out."

"Is that all he said?" I looked at him from the corner of my eye and he shrugged.

"Yeah, why was there something else?"

I shook my head. "No, no that was it." I lied.

"Are you going to go back and talk to him or are you a fan of the Derek method?" He asked.

"I'm sorry the what?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrow and a small smile.

"The 'have an argument and then drop it so you don't have to talk about it after' method." He grinned

"You know I never asked for an insight into your relationship with Derek, living with him was enough." I said.

"Yeah well I'm not asking for an insight into yours and I in no way encourage you to take my advice, in fact I advise against it," I shook my head at him as he tried to follow his reasoning, "but I'm here if you need me to just, you know, vent at."

"Thanks Stiles."

"Don't mention it, but I'm warning you now, I won't take your side all the time, just when Scott's pulling a Derek."

"Pulling a Derek? Can you really make a saying about him out of everything?" I laughed.

"Whenever someone's being a douche, yeah." He smiled.

He really is the most ridiculous human I have ever met. "I'm going to let you have an actual life, kind of."

"Ha-ha, you're hilarious."

"Don't have a Derek related saying for that?"

"No, he's not the most humorous of werewolves. Would you try not to snap at Scott so much? All this tension is making my head spin." He rubbed his temple and I chucked to myself a little.

"Yeah, I'll try." I stood up and walked over to the window.

"You know you can use the door if you want." He said.

"Where's the fun in that." I gave him a wink and climbed through before jumping down to the ground below.

I tried to avoid it, I really did, but someone once said to me that you shouldn't let a day go by without resolving an argument. The feeling in my gut when I thought about leaving this conversation to later made me think that whoever they were; they were right.

I headed over to Scott's house to see most of the lights off, there was still a dim flicker in his bedroom. The bedside lamp, I knew that light well. He sometimes leaves it on to read, especially now he's got this thing about finishing all the books on the reading list. He pretends that they fascinate him but I know that most of them bore him to death, probably because he doesn't understand them. Hell, I don't know anyone who really does understand them, they're all a bit too interpretive for me.

I silently climbed up the side of the house, knowing exactly where to step so that Melissa wouldn't hear, and before I had the chance to knock on the window Scott was there to open it. We stared at one another in silence for a moment, both with sheepish looks on our faces.

"Hey." I said softly.

"Hey." He replied, stepping back to let me climb through the window.

I ducked my head as I swung my leg through and walked over to the other side of the room, shuffling my feet a little. He pushed the window down and flicked the lock, turning so that he wasn't fully facing me, his thumbs concealed in the waistband of his shorts.

"Look, I'm – I'm sorry about this morning…" I said slowly.

He gave a little shrug and a nod. "It's okay. I guess I'm a little sorry too."

"No Scott it-"

"It's alright, I know where you're coming from and you know that I'm trying to work it all out so there's not much else we can say about it."

My mind started flashing red warning signs, he's going for the Derek Method.

"I just think we need to talk about it without getting angry." I said.

"There's not much more to say, besides, one of us always gets angry."

"That's because neither of us will budge." I said and he looked up. "How about I just say that I won't bug you if you promise to set a time limit on this whole secret keeping thing? I mean it, you give me a time and I won't ask you when you're going to tell her anymore." I did mean it.

I thought back to the ugly argument from this morning and really hoped we could sort something out.

_"How many times do I have to tell you that I just can't do it yet?!" Scott had yelled._

_"Well how many times to I have to sit back and pretend that I don't feel this way just because you're scared of something that doesn't exist?!" I had spat back._

_"Jesus Christ Isaac! Maybe you could think about how I feel about the whole fucking thing? She's my mom, not yours."_

_"Yeah and she accepted you as a fucking wolf so why won't she accept you for this?"_

_"It's not about that!"_

_"No? So what's it fucking about? Allison? Is that it? You don't want her to find out that you're fucking me? Oh wait, that's right; you're not."_

Maybe I had pushed the line a bit there. Okay, maybe a lot. That was the part where he told me to fuck off and slammed the door in my face. I regretted it as soon as it slipped out. I didn't know it was going to and I really wish that I could take it back but it's out there now and I feel like the bad guy in this equation.

The whole sex thing isn't that big of a deal, it's not. It's just when the two things tie together that it makes me feel like he's ashamed. And no, I haven't told him that because I know he'll deny it but part of me can't help thinking that it's true.

Scott let out a loud sigh. "I'll try to tell her before Thanksgiving." He said.

Not really what I was after. "That's almost two months away." I said softly.

"Well it's the best I have okay?" He said as he gave me his 'I'm sorry' face. "Can we please stop fighting? I hate it when you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad." I said with a sigh.

"I can see it on your face, you're mad and there's still… I mean this isn't the only thing we argued about this morning…" He said.

I walked over and cupped his face in my hands, resting my head against his. "I'm not mad. I love you." I said, kissing him lightly on the lips.

His hands reached up to gently caress my wrists and hole my hands against his cheeks. "I love you too, really, I'm not just saying it." He said.

"I know, Scott."

I let go of his face so that I could wrap my arms around him and I felt him nuzzle into my shoulder. I could hear his heart beat settle and I knew that it was slowly beginning to match mine.

"Isaac, about the other thing…"

"We don't need to talk about it, just forget I said anything." I whispered, my lips grazing his temple.

Huh, that's funny. I guess I'm the one using the Derek Method after all.


	3. Chapter 3

"So let me get this straight…" Derek said as Stiles gave him a sheepish grin on Saturday morning.

Derek stood with his arms folded looking down at Stiles as he sat on his couch trying not to make the situation a whole lot worse.

"You've volunteered my house for your little teenage booze-up? Were you ever planning on asking?" He said with a scolding tone in his voice that sort of made Stiles feel like a child.

"Of course I was, I need you to you know, buy the booze." He grinned again and Derek rolled his eyes.

"So your answer is no, you were planning on _telling_."

"Would you quit with the tone? You make me feel like I'm getting a scolding from my dad and it is_ so_ not sexy." Stiles said.

"That's not what I was going for." He leant in with a clip to Stiles' ear and he recoiled.

"Ouch! Alright! It's not that big a deal is it?"

Derek grunted. "Just tell me next time so I can plan to remove myself from the town for the night."

"Oh come on, don't you want to hang out with your pack?" Stiles teased.

Derek narrowed his eyes and came down to kneel on the couch, one knee either side of Stiles' hips. "Maybe I wanted to spend some time with you." He purred, his wet lips drifting to Stiles' neck and gently sucking on his skin and giving a few good rolls of his hips.

Stiles let out an audible groan as his hands found Derek's sides. He grinned to himself as he felt Stiles growing hard in his jeans and pulled his lips away, freezing his hips in place.

"But I suppose that can wait." He said and Stiles gave him a foul look.

"That's just pure evil." He said as Derek stood up and walked into the kitchen with a smile.

"That's what you get."

"Yeah well if I tell you about something else annoying that I've done will you do it again?" He called out.

"Nope."

Stiles rolled his eyes and stood up, readjusting himself into a slightly more comfortable position. "Do you have to leave a mark all the time?" He asked as he headed into the kitchen to sit on one of the chairs.

Derek looked up with a stern face and just nodded. "Yes."

"Well, I suppose there could be worse ways of marking your territory…" Derek gave a hearty laugh at that one.

"Stiles, I sincerely hope that I never get an inside look at your mind."

"Honey, you couldn't handle it."

"Honey?"

"Oh come on, I was being  
dramatic. Like I would ever call you honey." Stiles scoffed.

"Good, because I would have to kill you if you did." Derek took a sip from the glass of water he had poured and leant his arms on the bench.

"Always with the killing and the maiming Derek, tut, tut."

"I mean it, one more pet name out of you and trigger bond or not, you're dead." It was hard for Stiles to take Derek seriously when he could see the smile on his face.

"What's the matter _baby_? You don't like my pet names?" Stiles smirked as he hopped off his stool and walked over to Derek, taking one of his wrists and wrenching it behind his back far too easily.

That just made his smirk grow even wider.

"No." Derek said unconvincingly.

"You saying you don't even like it when I call you baby?" Derek closed his eyes at the feel of his hot breath in his ear.

"No." He said again, his tongue snaking out to comfort his dry bottom lip.

He felt Stiles' fingers run through his hair and form a tight grip, pulling his head back slowly but sharply. While Stiles could never leave a lasting mark on him he very much enjoyed it when he tried. His teeth grazed Derek's shoulder lightly at first and then clamped down hard, making him breathe in sharply at the feel of it. As Stiles made a large but fading purple bruise on his neck, Derek bit down on his own lip, his eyes still firmly closed.

"Well I think you're a dirty rotten liar." Stiles said in a ragged breath before letting Derek go and stepping back to lean against the table. "And I have no idea how you do that because I am no good at teasing you." He said, having turned himself on as much as he had intended to do to Derek.

Derek laughed. "You just have no self-control, that's your problem." He turned around and grabbed Stiles by the waist. "I happen to know a thing or two more about that."

Stiles raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? So do you always carry a torch in your front pocket?"

Derek scowled, the corners of his lips turned slightly upwards. "You can't distract me from what's actually going on here; you invited a bunch of teenagers over to my house to get drunk, off my booze."

Stiles groaned and rolled his eyes. "Seriously? Can't we just forget it and move on? It's not like I can cancel it now." He gave Derek another grin and he just let go and walked back to the fridge to find something to eat.

"You could." He said.

"Uh, no I couldn't. Do you have any idea how much hate I would cop for that?"

"Not my problem."

"I'll make it your problem." Derek just rolled his eyes with a groan as he turned back to Stiles.

He knew he was right. If there was one thing Stiles could do well it was get under Derek's skin… among other talents.

"Next time, would you give me the chance to say no? Or better yet, just don't offer to have things at my place."

"If I do that then nothing will ever happen."

"I think you'll find that to be my point."

"Yeah, yeah, now that we've got that over with can we go upstairs? I have self-control, I just choose not to use it." Stiles grinned and Derek shook his head.

"You really don't." He said as he walked over to kiss him roughly on the mouth.

"So that's a yes to the party and the drinking?" Stiles asked before slipping his tongue behind Derek's teeth.

Derek let out a growl which Stiles took to mean yes before he was being dragged up the stairs more than willingly.

Scott woke up that morning to find the bed next to him empty and cold. He blinked a few times and looked around the room but Isaac wasn't there. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and grabbed his shirt off the floor, pulling it over his head.

His ears tuned in to the sound of voices downstairs and knew that one of them was Isaac, the other was his mom. Part of him knew that going down there was just going to make the whole tension thing between them worse but he couldn't avoid it.

As he yawned his way down the stairs and wandered into his kitchen his mom greeted him with a kiss to the cheek.

"Hey honey, you slept in a little this morning."

"Yeah, I guess I did." He said, eyes still adjusting to the light.

"Well, I wish I could stay because this kitchen smells amazing but I took on an extra shift so I better leave before I'm late." She said.

"Why did you do that? Do we need-"

"Scott just relax, okay? A couple of people are off this weekend for a wedding and I volunteered to take the shifts, I'm not going to turn down good money. I get next weekend off anyway." She shrugged. "I guess I won't see you tonight, Isaac said you were going to Derek's place?"

"Uh, I guess yeah."

"You're not lying to me are you Isaac?" She turned to give him a grin.

"Wouldn't dream of it." He said with a smile.

"Okay, I never know when you kids are serious anymore." She shook her head. "See you later at some point. Bye boys." She gave Scott another kiss and grabbed her bag and keys before heading towards the door.

Isaac's eyes were trained on the pan in front of him and he was unnaturally quiet. Scott almost wished that his mom had stayed so that they didn't have to deal with the silence.

"So…" Scott started. "This does smell good, what are you making?"

"Uh, just bacon and eggs, there was toast but your mom ate all of that." He smiled for a moment but soon it was gone from his lips.

"That's cool. So we're going to Derek's place are we?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, Stiles texted me. I mean you don't have to go if you don't want to but I think I will."

"No, that's okay, I want to."

The two of them shared an awkward silence, both knowing that there was something hanging around that they hadn't properly addressed. Isaac didn't want to bring it up anymore, he knew that it would only end up in an argument and he hoped more than anything that Scott would want to talk about it. So far that wasn't looking likely.

"Isaac?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" He turned to look at Scott who was leaning against the table with his head tilted to the side.

"Are we… I mean, are we okay?" He looked a little vulnerable, his eyes showing off the worry behind them.

Isaac sighed, all parts of him melting with just one look. "Yeah Scott, we're okay."

Part of him regretted saying nothing more but the rest of him was so desperate to keep Scott that he almost didn't care that things were not simply 'okay'.

"I hate when we fight." Scott said.

"I just try and think of a good memory and usually it breaks my bad mood." Isaac gave him a little smile and Scott returned it with a flick of his eyebrow.

"Just usually?"

Isaac smirked. "Yeah well sometimes your just being a dick so trying to think of something good just makes me think of all the other times you've been a dick."

"Oh and it's so often is it?"

"It's okay, I know you can't help it." Scott laughed and walked over, kissing Isaac quickly on the cheek before stealing some bacon from the pan.

"Hey! Who said this was for you?" He smacked him with the spatula and felt his heart soar a little more even though nothing had really been resolved.

Derek headed out that afternoon and begrudgingly bought enough alcohol to keep the teenagers amused for a while. It truly disgusted him at how easily Stiles could manipulate him into doing something that he didn't want to do. Still, he did it anyway because for some reason he loved the clumsy loud-mouthed human, and he wouldn't change that.

When he got back to the loft Stiles was lounging out on the couch and watching the TV. He dumped the box he had bought on the kitchen bench and walked over to lean on the back of the couch, giving him a scowl.

Stiles smiled up at him with those big brown eyes and Derek leant down to peck his lips, his nose brushing against his chin. As he pulled back he couldn't help but notice Stiles' full parted lips and closed eyes and managed a quick smile while he wasn't looking.

"What was that for?" Stiles asked, his long eyelashes slowly separating.

"Am I not allowed to kiss you now?"

"Oh you can kiss me whenever you like, you just don't normally kiss you like that, you know, all Spiderman style. It's cute." Stiles smiled and Derek shook his head.

"Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"Why do you think?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, alright, god you're such a sour wolf sometimes."

Derek groaned and hung his head. "Why? Just why?" He muttered and Stiles let out a chuckle.

"Shut up, you love me."

"Yes, and I just can't understand it. Can you try not to involve me in any of your crap tonight? I'm not really in the mood." Derek said, walking over to take a seat near Stiles' feet.

He lifted them up so that He could put them on Derek's lap as he shuffled so that he could look at him.

"You know, in my experience there's only one thing you're ever in the mood for." He teased.

Derek smirked over at him silently before he spoke. "I just don't like dealing with people, human or otherwise."

"Me being the exception right?"

Derek pulled a face. "Not really, you just keep the previously mentioned mood at bay." Stiles narrowed his eyes.

"One of these days I am going to get severely pissed off at you for that kind of talk." Derek just laughed.

"Maybe, but it's easy to break that, you can't stay in one mood for too long, no matter what it is." Stiles was about to argue but he didn't really have anything to say that would prove him wrong.

"So you're not going to come down and hang out at all?" He asked instead.

"Changing the subject, clever move."

"Shut up."

Derek laughed. "No, I'm not. Maybe on the odd occasion but otherwise I think I'll keep to myself." Stiles rolled his eyes and Derek felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to check.

His brow furrowed and he pushed Stiles' legs off of him before heading to the kitchen bench.

"Is there something wrong?" Stiles asked, sitting up to look over at him.

"No, just something I have to sort out." He said.

"Something like what?" Stiles pressed.

"Why do you keep asking questions?"

"Why do you keep dodging the answers?"

"It's just Peter causing trouble alright? If I deal with him now then I don't have to do it later." He shrugged.

For some reason Stiles didn't believe him but he didn't question him any further, knowing that whatever it was; he probably didn't want to know.

"I'll be back later, try not to break anything." He said as he walked over to kiss his forehead before heading out through the lift doors.

"Oh come on, I'm not that clumsy!" He called. "I guess I should get those clothes out of the bathroom." He sighed to himself as he set to tidying up the place a bit, and to Stiles that meant putting the visible mess in an invisible spot.

Derek was not going to like that but maybe it'll teach him for having secret werewolf business.

It's not like he meant to crack into the booze early, but Stiles got bored of cleaning, bad TV and being all alone and for some reason that meant breaking a seal or two about an hour before Isaac showed up with Scott.

"Hey! You made it!" He grinned a little and the two exchanged a look with smiles that they were trying to hide.

"Hey, you're… already tipsy." Isaac said.

Stiles shrugged. "I got bored. Derek's out saving the world from Peter's craziness so it's just me."

"We can see that. You want to offer us something to drink?" Scott asked.

"Nah, just get your own. This time Derek doesn't have dibs on anything in particular so it's basically a free-for-all." He grinned.

It was soon after that Erica showed up with Boyd, Erica walking straight past Stiles and to the box of alcohol still on the bench. He gave her a few loud huffs before she laughed and ran back to kiss him on the cheek. The two of them had stayed remarkably close after the events of the past summer, much to Derek's annoyance. Something about it just rubbed him up the wrong way and he became super possessive of Stiles when she was around.

Of course Erica found it ridiculously amusing and Stiles wasn't going to complain about the extra friendliness or PDA because quite frankly he loved it.

With Scott and Isaac's relationship unable to be hidden from either of them they seemed a hell of a lot more relaxed in their company than around the others. From what Stiles could see, there was something going on and thanks to his psychologist aura he knew exactly what it was, but this time Scott was actually letting Isaac hold his hand in front of the others.

Well, he was, until Jackson showed up with Lydia and Allison in tow, then he dropped his hand just about as fast as he could and it didn't go unnoticed, by anyone. Stiles and Erica exchanged a glance and Boyd pretended to be inherently interested in the ads on the television. Isaac's head just dropped and he let out a low sigh as he watched Scott head over to refill his glass.

Jackson rolled his eyes, obviously not oblivious to any of it and very clearly uncaring about it while Lydia and Allison had no idea. They hadn't voiced any knowledge of the matter anyway.

"If Danny shows up can you try not to be your douche-y self? He said you were being an extra-large one this week." Stiles said.

Jackson scoffed, nabbing the bottle out of Scott's hand. "No he didn't."

"Well… he said you were extra snappy. I don't know why you think you can't tell him about everything, I'm sure he can deal with it." Stiles said.

"It's not that I can't it's that I choose not to. See the difference with your little half-wit brain?" He said sharply and Stiles raised his eyebrows.

"Damn, Danny was right, you are snappier than usual."

"You know, I don't know why you won't tell him." Boyd said, leaning back on the counter.

"Why don't you ask Derek what he thinks of the number of people who know about this town's little werewolf problem and then ask me that question?"

"I say we leave him to the bottle and ignore him for the rest of the night." Erica chimed in.

"I don't often agree with you but this time I would have to say that you've got it right." Lydia said with a smirk.

Stiles was no expert, but there was definitely some tension in this room tonight. This time it was Allison's turn to look away awkwardly.

"Lydia, Allison, would you like something human friendly?" Stiles offered.

"As long as it's strong I'll take whatever you've got." Lydia said, her voice rising an octave and Stiles even thought he saw Jackson roll his eyes.

_Well, so far this night is going swimmingly_, Stiles thought.


	4. Chapter 4

_Stiles – _

Okay, so from what I can gather this night is like, opposite night. No seriously.

I'm sitting up on the kitchen bench with Erica and – get this – Scott and _Jackson_ are hanging out over by the couch and Isaac is chilling on the stairs with Lydia and Allison. Boyd and Danny are in some serious debate about… something, it doesn't sound like anything I would be interested in. Oh right, Danny got here like an hour ago and Derek is still gone.

I know he said he didn't want to hang around a bunch of teenagers – funny seeing as he kind of chose them to be his pack – but damn it where was he? It's starting to make me anxious, especially because he was so freaking secretive.

"So…" I said to Erica. "What do you think they're talking about?" I pointed my glass in the direction of Scott and Jackson.

She gave me a little laugh. "Please, I don't _think_, I know."

"Oh right, werewolf ears."

She rolled her eyes and leant back on her elbows. "They're talking about lacrosse."

"Seriously? Lacrosse? Could they be any more boring?" I scoffed.

I looked over at her but I could see that she was listening to something else. Her eyes lit up and she started to laugh again. "On the other hand, some people are talking about more interesting things." She nodded to the little group on the stairs. "When I say interesting I mean it could _get_ interesting depending on how the conversation goes." She said softly, clearly trying to hide her voice from even nosier ears.

I picked up the remote next to me and turned up the music a few notches. "Give me the goods."

"Are you going to tell me what's up with Derek?"

"_I_ don't even know what's up with Derek, I was hoping one of you did."

She shook her head. "No, he isn't saying much, we haven't had a pack meet in a while."

"Damn, all I know is that he said his little disappearance had something to do with Peter but I'm not sure if I believed him."

She sighed. "Fine," she turned her head to the side, ears straining to hear. "Isaac's asking Allison if she's ever going to sort things out with Scott."

I almost choked on my drink, in fact I did choke a little, spluttering about and earning an eye roll and a head shake from Erica.

"Subtlety isn't your thing is it Stiles?"

"He's what?" I hissed.

"Keep your voice down." She leant in close to whisper to him.

"What are they saying what are they saying?" I hissed more quietly.

"He's asking her if she still wants to get back together with Scott or whether things can't be fixed because he'll wait for her forever if that's what it takes… oh god, I might vomit. I thought the two of them were… you know." She looked to me and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah well they are but I'm pretty sure there's still one big crack down the middle of that road." I said.

"Allison." Erica whispered.

"Allison." I repeated.

_Isaac – _

Scott is going to kill me if he heard me talking about this. I mean he would absolutely and undoubtedly kill me.

Allison looked away from me with a sigh and Lydia tilted her head to the side, clearly curious to know the answer to my question.

"It's not that I don't still care about him…" She started and I knew that my heart was pounding ridiculously fast. "Of course I do."

"Well you know he's right." Lydia shrugged. "If you give him any hope at all he's going to wait for you to say jump and he's going to say-"

"How high?" I finished and she looked at me with pursed lips.

"I was going to say 'that he always knew you were more than just a one off' or something to that effect but if you want to go with a cliché then that works too."

Allison shook her head. "I love Scott," I swallowed hard at that and felt the hard pinch in my chest. "I really… but I just don't know… god, I just _don't know_." She said.

"Well you can take all the time you want, he's not going to find anyone else, at least not seriously." Lydia said, making me wish that I had just stayed out of it. "But this has been going on for months now, you need to do _something_."

"A lot has happened…"

"Allison, you can't put it off forever. You don't have to decide what you want to do today but maybe you should talk to him." Lydia said again.

Allison made a croaking sound in her throat and looked around the corner at Scott and Jackson. "What am I supposed to say?"

"Do you want him back?" Isaac asked.

"I don't know what I want." She sighed.

"Well clearly you don't want him _now_ so maybe that would be a good place to start." Lydia sounded slightly annoyed but at least she was trying. "I mean we all love Scott," She looked very strangely at me for a moment and I'm sure my ears and face and possibly all other parts of my body flushed bright pink as she did. "No one wants to see him get hurt."

"I guess you want me to do that now, right?" She said.

"Yeah." Shit, that kind of just slipped out.

Both of them looked at me slightly confused, well, Lydia was almost amused and I tried to backtrack.

"I mean, I just want Scott to be happy, he's probably my closest friend."

"I'm sorry Isaac." Allison sighed. "You think Jackson will give him up?"

Lydia scoffed. "Even if he doesn't just take Scott and run."

"Right." Allison stood up and sidestepped the other two as she slowly walked down the stairs and towards the other side of the loft.

Lydia turned to me and pouted her lips, a sly smile creeping onto her face. I tried not to engage with her but I must have looked so nervous as my eyes darted away from hers.

"There's something going on between you and Scott isn't there?" She said the second Allison was out of earshot.

"What? No." I said, still not meeting her eyes.

She made a tutting sound and gave me a shove. "Since when?"

"I said no didn't I?"

"You were clearly lying, I'm not an idiot you know." She said and I narrowed my eyes.

"I know but clearly Jackson has a big mouth."

"Yes well there is that." She said. "He didn't say it in so many words but he gave me my suspicions and then all you had to do was bring him up for me to know that it was true."

"So all the taunting and the 'he won't find anyone else' stuff was for my benefit?"

"A little, and I don't want to be the bad guy here but what I said is true and you know it. Don't try and tell me it's not because you know Scott far, _far_ better than I do and even I know that when it comes to Allison he's hopeless." I sighed, Lydia has a habit of being right

"You don't need to keep reminding me, okay?" I said.

This time she sighed, tilting her head to the side sympathetically. "You like him a lot more than Jackson let on don't you?"

"We're not really telling anyone because Scott-"

"Is in love with Allison?"

"I was going to say doesn't want anyone to know yet but everyone seems to have the same idea as you so we might as well go with that." I grumbled.

"This is why you never get involved with someone who has baggage." She said and I gave her a look.

"Are you really going to sit there trying to convince me that Jackson has no baggage?"

She shook her head, "I never said that I take my own advice. Plus I seem to have a knack for this whole supernatural thing."

"You mean-"

"Yes, I mean making a mess of it and finding the bodies. I guess you could call me a messenger of death." She snapped and I figured that was enough down that line of discussion.

Before I had the chance to say anything else Erica and Stiles were standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"You're going to be a messenger of death in a minute," Erica said to me with a grin. "Allison just led Scott outside, hand in hand; it was so sweet wasn't it?" She asked Stiles.

"Dude, I like you and all but I'm not going to taunt him like that. Seriously though Isaac, what are you thinking?" Stiles said.

"Can we all please stop talking about it like it's the most interesting thing in the world?" I grunted.

"Hey, you made your big fat gay threesome everybody's business so the answer to that is no." Erica said, clearly enjoying this.

"No, I didn't, you all just happen to be able to hear and smell everything and can't keep your mouths shut." I hissed.

"You're lucky Danny doesn't have super hearing or everyone would be in on this 'secret'. I don't even know why we're calling it that anymore. Can we just move on?" Jackson said as he walked over, Scott having been snatched away by Allison.

My stomach was feeling a little queasy, this is really starting to seem like a bad idea.

"Yeah, let's move on until you decide to tell us that Lydia's just a cover for your relationship with Danny." Erica smirked and Jackson narrowed his eyes.

"You're hilarious." He said derisively.

"I don't mind if you have a relationship with Danny, just so long as I can watch." All eyes turned to Lydia and she shrugged, Stiles grinning from ear to ear.

"I knew you were kinky." He said and Erica rolled her eyes.

"I'm not going to go with the trend of this group." He said, kind of defensive about it.

"Maybe we all should, I'm sure Lydia knows exactly what she's doing." Erica smirked and gave Lydia a wink.

Lydia folded her arms and popped out her hip with attitude. "Easy there tigress, you're going to have to buy me dinner first."

"Okay if we're serious here can _I _watch?" Stiles said and Jackson punched him in the arm.

"Are you guys alright over there?" Danny called out as him and Boyd headed to the kitchen to pour themselves more to drink.

Boyd gave them a smile before shooting Jackson a wink, clearly having heard the entirety of the conversation and I let out a snort as I tried to hide my laughter. The others all seemed to follow my lead because in seconds we were all cackling wildly. Jackson was obviously not and followed Danny, taking the bottle off him and knocking it back quickly.

"Whoa, whoa, take your time there." He said, snatching it back. "So is there anything here to do or are you all secretly plotting something over by the stairs?"

"I don't think that Derek is the 'things to do' kind of guy." I said and Stiles snorted.

"He's a let's do nothing but read kind of guy." He said.

"I got a deck of cards here." Boyd said, pulling them from a drawer in the kitchen. "Anyone know how to play anything?"

"I know a little poker." Jackson shrugged.

"And you're terrible at it." Lydia said.

"You can't even play."

"No but I'm here for support." She said.

"Anyone got change?" Danny asked.

"Seriously? You guys are pussies." Erica said.

"I take offence to that." Danny said with a sly grin.

"You've still got a decent amount of booze, make it a drinking game." She said.

"Funny, I thought you were going to say strip poker." I said with a smile.

She shrugged in my direction. "Either way, drink til the alcohol's gone and you won't need to play poker to strip."

"Or you can make it a choice." Boyd said, shaking his head because they were all taking this far too seriously.

"It's settled, winner picks a victim and they choose between a shot or an item of clothing. Boyd, shuffle the deck." Danny said, pouring the bottle over the empty glasses on the bench.

"Derek's going to fucking kill me." Stiles groaned but didn't say no.

"Invite him to play."

"Calm down Danny he'll drink himself stupid before he strips down." Stiles said in response.

"Hey, like the lady said before, either way works." Danny shrugged with a smile.

"Did you just call Erica a lady?" Jackson turned up his nose.

"Yeah, something's not right there." Boyd grinned.

"You can all go screw yourselves because I plan on beating you all." She said.

"Two things, is that after you're stripped to nothing and will you use your left or right hand for it?" Stiles said, I don't think anyone has laughed so hard all night.

I was enjoying all the time with our friends but I couldn't keep one eye off the door, waiting for Scott and Allison to come back. I know that Stiles noticed because he elbowed me and gave me a look, one that said 'just relax and try not to think about it'. That's easier said than carried out.

Derek headed back to the loft a few hours later, by then it was quite dark and the moon was high in the sky. He was just thankful that it wasn't full.

He wondered – hoped was probably a better word for it – that they were winding down up in his loft. He felt so old even thinking it but he had done his fair share, more than his fair share, of partying when he was younger and the thought of doing it again made him tired.

It also made him feel far older than his years because according to everyone ever, he should still be out drinking and partying and having the time of his life. Then again, Derek hasn't really had the conventional Californian life.

He pulled up outside the warehouse looking building and locked his Camaro as he walked up to the doors. Heading inside and up to the lifts he could already hear them, laughing and carrying on and he knew that he was never going to sleep through it.

It just seemed to get louder and louder as he got closer and when the lift doors opened they all looked up and he rolled his eyes. Really? _Really?_ He thought.

Some of them were half dressed, others had on various bits of clothing from the ones who were lacking it. He could smell the whiskey and vodka and knew that some of it would be spilt on his floors. He tried not to think about how old he sounded to himself as he passed judgement on the sloppy teenagers.

"Hey Derek, you want to join?" Stiles said, a slight slur in his speech.

He was sitting in his boxers and his T-shirt, Erica's cardigan wrapped around his head.

He is going to be fun to deal with later. It'll either be horny, passed out or sick as a dog when they make it to bed. _Please be the second one_. Derek thought.

"You're not seriously playing strip poker are you?" He asked.

"You had nothing better lying around." Danny said, getting a little more confidence the more he drank and Derek raised an eyebrow.

Danny looked a little sheepish but it was marred by the drunken grin on his face, shared by the rest of them

All but Isaac had the same look. He seemed to almost be having a worse time than Derek would have been. He saw his eyes drop when he walked in and it was then that he noticed that there was no Scott and no Allison. Derek wasn't going to ask about it but he sighed, he felt almost obliged to stay and make sure he wasn't having too terrible a time.

He turned back to Danny. "No? Well I guess it'll have to do then." He walked over and sat beside him, Danny swallowing hard and trying not to look away from Derek's eyes. "Catch me up and deal me in." He said as he pulled his shirt slowly over his head, less than a foot from where Danny was sitting.

That time his eyes may have slipped south, they certainly stayed there for longer than they would if he had been sober.

"Okay, I think we make a rule to keep Danny in his boxers for the rest of the night because nobody's going to want them now." Erica grinned and Lydia's nose scrunched up in a laugh that Stiles found more than adorable, tapping her nose with his finger and making her cackle even more as Jackson punched him in the arm again.

Derek was never going to admit it but he did actually start to enjoy himself. Maybe it was the laughter and warm feeling that seemed to be running through the air or maybe it was the not-so-subtle winks and kisses that Stiles was shooting him from across the small coffee table. Whatever it was he didn't mind it for once.

He couldn't help but notice how Isaac was constantly looking over to the door and how he was the only one who didn't laugh quite so hard at everyone's jokes. He had that wounded look and it got to a point where Derek was actually losing the game so he got up and headed to the kitchen.

"Isaac, you want to give me a hand?" He said.

"With what?"

"I'm pretty sure there's an all hours pizza place around the corner, come in here and get the number." He said and Isaac gave him a shrug before standing up and following him.

"Pepperoni!" Stiles called.

"Shut up Stiles." Derek said back.

"So you got the number or what?" Isaac asked once they were both in the kitchen.

"What's the matter?" Derek asked as he filled up a glass with water from the sink.

"What? Why are you-"

"What. Is. Wrong?" Derek said.

Isaac sighed. "Look it's nothing okay? Scott and Allison are just sorting things out, maybe, and before you ask; no, I don't know what that means but it was my idea and I'm really starting to regret it. So can we shut up about it please? I don't need you pretending to give a shit about what's going on with me alright?" he snapped.

Derek gave him a nod, knowing that he would beat himself up enough about what he said later. "Okay, call the pizza place then." He said, throwing the card over to him and heading back into the lounge.

He was still without a shirt but otherwise he had opted to take a shot for every game he lost. He was only slightly buzzed but he knew that if Isaac didn't want to talk then he wasn't going to.

So the pizzas came and went and Scott was still gone. Jackson got sick of losing and gathered his clothes off the others while stumbling around because he had done one too many shots. Danny made a place for himself on the couch and his eyes began to droop as he watched Lydia calm Jackson down and lay him across her lap on the couch opposite.

Erica and Boyd sat in the corner, her legs draped over him as they talked quietly. Derek dragged Stiles up the stairs, gathering his shirt as he did, knowing that this was going to happen. Isaac just headed up the stairs alone, the alcohol not helping his mood.

His pants were still downstairs and he stripped his shirt over his head as he slumped down onto the bed. He swung his legs over and burrowed under the sheet. As he slipped his hand under his head he tried to ignore the laughter seeping through the bedroom across the way, closing his eyes tightly.

As he focussed on something else he wished he had picked something that made him feel better rather than worse.

_Isaac and Scott laughed as the late afternoon sun crept in through the window of Isaac's bedroom. Stiles and Derek were out and they had the place to themselves. The grin on Isaac's face couldn't be removed as his nose stroked Scott's cheek and his lips kissed him down his lopsided jaw._

_Scott's hands wrapped around his waist as he smiled, savouring the touch. "Why do you always do that?" He asked softly._

_"Why not?" He replied, scooting down to his side and reaching up to brush Scott's face with his thumb._

_"I don't know, you just seem to like it so much." Scott held his body close with his hands._

_"Is it my fault that I love you?" He grinned for a second before realising what had just slipped out of his mouth. "Shit… uh… sorry." He said, pulling his hand back and turning his face away._

_"Did you mean that?" Scott asked, grabbing his wrist and holding it against his cheek._

_Isaac looked up, his eyes shining and Scott not leaving any room for him to move. "I honestly didn't mean for it to come out."_

_"But… do you really feel that way?"_

_Isaac swallowed and gave him a nod. Scott's lips twitched into a small smile as he leant in to press them against Isaac's._

_He pulled them back just slightly and opened his eyes to see that Isaac's were still closed. "I think I love you too." His eyes shot open and he searched Scott's face, his heartbeat unfaltering._

_He grinned and pulled him in for another kiss, hearing Scott laugh and knowing that he loved him just made everything seem perfect._

As he relived the memory he heard feet climbing the stairs and Scott's scent filled his nostrils. His footsteps got closer until the door gave a little squeak and he was inside, closing it again.

Isaac's back was to him and he didn't move, he didn't roll over, he just lay there hoping that Scott wouldn't notice.

Scott sat down on the edge of the bed and kicked off his shoes, next came his jeans. As he climbed into the bed he looked over to him.

"Isaac?" He bit down on his lip to try not to say anything. "Isaac are you awake?" He said softly.

Isaac let out a sigh and shuffled a little. "Yeah, yeah I'm awake." He whispered.

"Um, do you want to talk?" He said.

Isaac swallowed hard. "In the morning maybe?" He choked.

This time it was Scott's turn to sigh. "Okay." He said.

As he shuffled down to get comfortable Isaac held on to the hope that he would grab him by the waist and pull them together, linking their hands and whispering an 'I love you' in his ear, but he didn't. He found a spot in the sheets and exhaled heavily, their bodies not touching and Isaac knew he wouldn't sleep as he anxiously awaited Scott's words in the morning.

**A/N: This is the link to the trailer I made :)**

/B4fcXrFRYQY


	5. Chapter 5

Stiles woke up with a groan on Sunday morning, wondering what the hell he did to deserve a hangover like this one. He made more groaning sounds as he snuggled backwards and into Derek's body, his arm already draped over his side.

"Rough night?" Derek said, smiling with his eyes still closed.

"Shut up." Stiles groaned and Derek began to run his hands over him and nuzzle into the back of his neck. "What are you _doing_?"

"Since when am I the smart-ass and you're the one telling me to shut up?" He smirked.

Stiles sat up sharply and began to pat himself down frantically.

"Stiles what the hell is wrong with you?" Derek said, looking up at him.

"It's okay, I'm still in my own body." He said with a huff and Derek dragged him back down with a laugh.

"You're a strange little person, did you know that?"

"I take great pleasure in that." Stiles said, lying back and enjoying the feel of Derek's lips and tongue ravishing his neck. "Surely that can't taste very good." He smiled.

"You always taste good." Derek said, rolling over so that he was lying with his body pressed against Stiles' side, his morning wood straining against the inside of his boxer shorts.

"_Derek_… I'm all gross and stuff." Stiles said, his fingers reaching under Derek's shirt and stroking his side.

"Like you care." He said.

Derek brought his lips to Stiles' mouth and parted it with his tongue, licking his top lip and making Stiles pull him in closer. He moved his body further over and rolled his hips down a little, making him groan and slip his fingers under the waistline of Derek's boxers, his hands cupping his ass and giving it a little squeeze.

Derek pulled his lips away and stared down at him. "_Stiles_, why do you always do that?"

He grinned up at him. "Have you seen _your_ ass?"

Derek rolled his eyes and shifted his weight to turn Stiles over, extending the claw on his index finger and gently running it down his back. Stiles shivered, closing his eyes and sucking his lip into his mouth. "Have you seen yours?" Derek wriggled down, pulling off Stiles' underwear and gently taking his soft flesh between his teeth and sucking on it, leaving a small purple mark.

Stiles yelped a little. "Hey! Did I say you could mark your territory there?"

Derek leered up at him before snaking out his tongue and laying it flat against his skin. Stiles' body tingled and his fingers gripped the sheets as Derek worked his way towards more sensitive parts of his anatomy. He let out a choked moan as the tantalising tip of Derek's tongue gave one slow flick over his entrance.

"Did you want me to stop?" He asked cockily and Stiles grunted.

"You do and I'll beat your little werewolf-ass into next year."

Derek laughed and dipped his head back down, circling his tongue and making Stiles' moans quicken and his legs spread faster. "You're too easy." He growled.

"Don't care… _fuck_!" He groaned into the pillow as Derek's assault grew more emphatic.

He ground his hips down against the sheets, the friction more than amazing on his already leaking cock. Derek let out a growl at that.

"Hey!" He said, pulling his hips up so that Stiles was on his knees. "No short-cuts."

"Come on, please?" He begged.

"Not yet." Derek teased, his tongue becoming even more torturous.

Stiles' brow was beading with sweat and his cock was aching for Derek's touch, or his touch, or just about anything. He groaned with every breath and Derek could see just how desperate he was for more.

"_Please_ Derek…" He said urgently.

Satisfied by Stiles' begging he let him go to reach for the bottle in the top bedside drawer. He poured some onto his fingers and urged one gently inside him. Stiles let out a loud gasp and pushed himself back, only to have Derek hold him firmly in place.

"Why do you always seem to be in a hurry?" He asked, adding a second finger and scissoring slightly.

"I… _uhn_… am I not allowed to want you?" He said through his panting breaths.

"There's a time and place for that." Derek whispered in his ear and he shivered again.

"God damn it Derek!" Stiles snarled, the teasing become too much to bear.

He laughed. "I just enjoy teasing you, but if you insist."

As he poured some more from the bottle into his hand he pulled down his boxers and slicked himself up.

"Roll over." He said and Stiles turned onto his back, letting Derek position himself between his legs. He shook his head and made a tutting sound. "So impatient."

Stiles let out a frustrated sound and glared up at him. "If you don't fuck me right now I am seriously going to-"

Derek cut him off as he slid inside him, rocking his hips and doing all he could to keep a straight face. "Better?"

"Oh _god_ yeah…" Stiles groaned and Derek let go of his cocky disguise to thrust harder and rest his head against Stiles' forehead

He pumped his hips with short sharp moves that hit Stiles right where he ached for it as his fingernails dug into Derek's back. With one hand he grabbed Derek by his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Their tongues twisted around one another and Stiles felt the stubble scratching his cheek. Derek pulled away, his breathing turning ragged and his eyes glowing red.

Stiles tilted his chin up and stared hungrily into his eyes as he slowed down the rhythm of his hips and just pushed himself deeper into Stiles. He let his thumb brush over Stiles' bottom lip as he gazed down at him, kissing his softly before burying his face in his neck. As he gave the last few strokes he could manage he took hold of Stiles' cock in his hand and it took only a few caresses before his heat was exploding over Derek's stomach and he was letting himself go, struggling to hold himself up.

Their shaking bodies stayed connected until the waves of pleasure had ceased and Derek rolled to the side, panting harshly and letting out a contented sigh.

"You see? Isn't it better when you just listen to me?" Stiles grinned over at him.

"Most of the time I try to avoid listening to you Stiles."

"Yeah but when it comes to this-"

"Shh…" Derek said.

"What?"

"You're ruining it with your mouth."

Stiles scowled. "I'll ruin _you_ with my mouth." He muttered under his breath and Derek smirked.

"I think it's safe to say that you already have." The glare disappeared from Stiles' face and he leant over to seal their lips together with a kiss.

Scott woke up the next morning with the crushing feeling from the night before. He had hoped that a night of sleep would have relieved him of it but if anything it was worse. He turned his head to the bed beside him and sighed.

Isaac wasn't there.

He had a habit of doing that lately, waking up first and rather than waking Scott up with him like he used to, he would just head downstairs and sit alone, thinking.

He should have tried to hold him last night, he knew that. Somehow he couldn't force himself to do it. The cold tension in the room was worse than it had ever been and he wished it could have been any other way. He would rather fight than say nothing.

He reached out to feel the sheets where Isaac had slept and sighed again when he realised that they were cold. He'd been gone for a while. Scott didn't know when he had fallen asleep but he hoped that Isaac hadn't been gone all night.

This whole thing was just getting worse and worse and he knew that it was his fault. He knew they had to sort it all out but how was he going to say it? Any of it? It was all so much harder than is should have been.

He almost wished that the Kanima or the Maeve were back because he could deal with that, mostly, how he felt was something completely different. He could hear Derek and Stiles laughing in the bedroom next door and closed his eyes, wishing they would stop torturing him with their happy little romance.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and rubbed his eyes, gathering his loose bits of clothing and throwing them on, not caring if anything was inside out or wrong way round. He headed downstairs and into the kitchen, his eyes searching for Isaac but he couldn't see him anywhere, confirmation from his nose said the same.

Erica was sitting behind a bowl of cereal and stared up at him as he poured himself some water.

"Why are you staring at me?" He asked.

She shook her head and swallowed her mouthful. "Nothing."

He rolled his eyes and looked around the room. Jackson and Danny were each asleep on the couches while Boyd was starting to clean up their mess. Scott had taken Allison home last night on his new motorcycle. Well, new-ish.

He had given her the helmet and jacket, knowing that if they were to crash he would have a better chance at recovering from it than she would.

"Have… have you seen Isaac?" He asked.

She shook her head again. "No, why, is he missing?"

He could sense some hostility from her but ignored it. "No, I was just wondering."

"Breakfast?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm fine." He said.

_Liar_, she thought.

"So where's Allison?" She asked, earning a glare from Scott and Boyd let out a huffing sound.

"_Erica_." He hissed.

"What? She was here last night and now she's not. Excuse me for asking a simple question."

"You're excused." Scott said sharply. "What time is it?"

"Mid-morning." Boyd answered.

Scott just nodded back.

"Why are you all always talking?" Jackson hissed from the couch.

Boyd chuckled a little and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Get off me!" He growled.

"He is seriously not a morning person." He laughed, walking over to join the others in the kitchen.

Scott couldn't help but wonder where Isaac had gone, why he had just left. He thought he knew the reason to that last one. He didn't want to hear what Scott had to say, somehow it was easier to pretend that things between them were okay then to open himself up to the truth.

Danny woke up soon after and tried to rouse Jackson; who was having none of it. Eventually, after a lot of pestering and a little smothering with a pillow he got up and stalked into the kitchen for some food.

Boyd had cleaned up a lot of the mess with help from Scott and a begrudging Erica, who mostly stood around and told them that the room was a mess. After a long while Derek and Stiles came down the spiral stairs as well.

Derek took one look at the loft and sighed. "Remind me never to let you do this again." He said to Stiles.

"Why would I do that?" He said back.

As the two exchanged glances Danny stood up and stretched out. "Well, I think I might head on home, did anyone need a lift?" He asked.

"Yeah, I might take you up on that, you live a few blocks from me." Boyd said, standing up to follow him.

"Uh, thanks for… well thanks for letting us crash at your place Derek." He said, not making too much eye contact.

"Don't you mean 'get trashed at' his place?" Erica sneered.

"Yeah well, that too." Danny said with a little smile.

"See you on Monday." Jackson said and Danny gave him a nod.

Boyd gave everyone a wave and they both headed to the lift and towards Danny's car.

"Hey, where's Lydia?" Stiles asked.

He looked over at Jackson who shrugged and responded curtly. "I don't know, at home? She left earlier."

"Sorry, I thought you might give a crap about your girlfriend but apparently I was wrong." Stiles said and Jackson looked just about ready to throttle him.

"Would the both of you settle down? If you're not going to help me clean this place then you can all go home." Derek said, thankful that Boyd takes the initiative.

"I actually should go home and start my reading for English class. I sort of did none over the break." Stiles said sheepishly and Derek gave him a glare.

"Do you mind giving me a lift?" Erica asked, sliding off the kitchen bench and earning an even darker look from Derek.

"Danny just offered a lift, why didn't you go with him?" He said.

"Maybe I wanted to go with Stiles?" She gave him a smile and Stiles couldn't help but stifle his grin.

"I'm heading out too. I – I have some stuff to sort out." Scott said, not saying another word or any goodbyes as he walked out.

"That was weird." Erica said.

Stiles shrugged, "Not so much, you coming?"

She nodded and they went to follow Scott but not before Derek stopped Stiles and kissed him hard on the mouth, kind of taking his breath away. He didn't ask, he didn't have to, he just kissed him back before finally leaving with Erica.

"Dude, do you have to do that right in front of us?" Jackson said and Derek folded his arms, giving him an expectant look. "Oh no, I don't think so."

"Pick up the bottles and then wipe down that table. I'll get rid of these boxes." Derek said, heading over to clean up the pizza scraps as Jackson groaned and stomped over the the bottles loudly.

"You know he hates it when you do that right?" Stiles said as he drove Erica home in his jeep.

She looked over at him with a grin. "Why do you think I do it?"

"I honestly have no idea why he gets like that."

"Probably because I kissed you that one time. I never thought he'd be the jealous type but it's so much fun to annoy him."

Stiles chuckled. "He's your alpha, aren't you supposed to respect him or fear him or something?"

"Oh I know that one day he's going to turn around and break my arm but for now it's amusing." She said, winding down the window and letting her hair blow in the breeze.

"You going to stick your head out and let your tongue go wild?" He teased.

She turned to shake her head at him. "You wish."

"What the hell was up with Jackson this morning? Did I miss something?" He asked.

"No, I personally didn't notice any difference to normal." She said.

"Something's been up all week; do you think it has something to do with him and Lydia?"

She scoffed. "I know it does, they're constantly arguing."

"It's probably just stupid high school crap."

Erica shook her head. "Not this time."

"Wait… you know what's going on with them and you haven't told me yet? What's wrong with you?" Stiles said.

"I don't actually care, that's what."

"Well I do! If there's something going on I don't want to be out of the loop."

"It's not your loop."

"Is it really yours?"

"I guess not, I just happen to be in a lot of loops because I can hear a hell of a lot more than anyone else." She said with a smile. "They're arguing because Jackson wants them to take the year off and travel through Europe or something when we graduate and Lydia wants to go straight to college and start being a genius or something. And Jackson thinks that she should see the world and stop freaking out about the future and Lydia thinks that he needs to start planning a future and then I got bored and tuned out."

Stiles just nodded for a second before a confused look crossed his face. "Are they seriously thinking of college and graduation already? We just started senior year."

"Of course they are, aren't you?" Erica asked.

"Why would I be? I have like, six whole months before I need to start thinking about that." He said.

"Wrong again, you have maybe two months. Come New Year all the colleges are going to have open days and applications and then before you know it you'll be off doing something for the next fifty years of your life."

Stiles hadn't thought about any of that yet, he was still thinking about trying to pass chemistry, let alone get into college or even what he wanted to do if he got there.

"Haven't you thought about it at all yet?" She asked.

"Well, not really, I mean I'll probably go to college somewhere." He shrugged. "No one really knows what they're going to do yet, I mean I'll bet you've got no idea."

"Me and Boyd are going to stay here with Derek." She said.

Stiles nodded a little and suddenly realised that he hadn't given anything much thought at all. Then he got slightly distracted. "You and Boyd-"

"We're just friends Stiles." She said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Why can't anybody realise that there's nothing going on between us?"

"Well, you're together all the time so-"

"So are you and Scott."

"Yeah but Scott's my best friend."

"Yeah?" She said, giving him a look.

"Really? Boyd's your best friend?" He asked.

"He's sort of my only friend."

"Hey, I take offence to that." He said with the hint of a smile.

She shot him one back. "Okay, so I have two friends, Me and Boyd just get each other, that's all. He's going to stay here and join the USAF, unless there's some serious crap he can stay based here and I am undecided about what to do. I'll probably just take some community college course, I've got time to figure it out so…" She shrugged.

"Boyd wants to get into the Air Force?"

"He did junior ROTC, his dad was Air Force for a long time." She said.

"You certainly know a lot about him."

"We're not together Stiles." She growled.

"Okay, okay." He said.

After a moment of just the tyres on the road she spoke up again.

"So if you go to college are you going to leave Derek?"

Stiles was taken aback and practically gave himself whiplash turning to look at her. "Why would you say that? I'm not going to leave Derek to go to college."

"No, I mean physically, do you want to go to college out of state?" She said with a roll of her eyes.

He furrowed his brow and stared at the road ahead. "I haven't thought about any of this." He said.

"Maybe it's time to start." She said.

"Yeah… by the way, you must have seen where Lydia went this morning."

"I did." She said with a sigh.

"And?"

"And what? I don't know where she went, I only saw her leave. She followed Isaac out at about seven this morning."

"He left that early?"

"Yep, Scott got back kind of late last night and when he went upstairs I didn't hear any yelling or fighting, it was actually kind of eerie. I guess he just doesn't want to face the fact that Scott's going to pick Allison." She said.

"He's not going to pick Allison." Stiles scoffed.

"No? He's not going to pick his gorgeous ex-girlfriend who was his first love and I'm sure his first for many other things too over his werewolf friend who came on to him over the summer?" She said.

"Well, of course it sounds bad when you put it like that." He mumbled.

"Well what else does it sound like? They'd been broken up for like a month when he and Isaac started bumping the ugly." She pushed him closer to her thoughts and then it hit him.

He sighed. "You think Isaac was like a rebound thing."

She nodded. "I'm not saying I think it's a good thing. He'd be better for Scott than a girl whose name means sliver and whose father is constantly inches away from shooting him with a crossbow. I just think Scott is too stupid and infatuated with Allison to realise it."

"Are you trying to say that you're Team Isaac?" Stiles grinned and she shook her head at him again.

"I'm saying that Isaac is the better choice, but I don't actually care about Scott's relationships." She said.

"In other words, yes."

She laughed. "Yeah Stiles, I'm Team Isaac." She said sarcastically.

"Good, I think I am too. Allison had her shot." The two of them just laughed and Stiles started thinking about Isaac and where he could have gone.

He tried not to worry but he could see it on his face last night, it was eating him up inside not to know and running from the problem was making him feel even worse. He just hoped that they would sort it out soon and that Isaac wasn't going to get hurt.

Isaac sat on the cold wooden floor, looking around the empty room just thinking about it all. He tried not to think about the hours that went past the night before when Scott was out with Allison, he tried not to think about how happy they were the year before, back before the Kanima or the rest of the pack, back when they first fell in love, he tried not to think about how Scott reeked of her when he lay beside him, or how he hadn't even reached out to touch him.

He sat in the place that he thought nobody would find him because right now he didn't want to be found. He didn't want reality to catch up to the picture his mind had already painted for him. Mostly he tried not to let the tears fall down his cheeks when he thought of the last two months.

He wished that he had never kissed him. No, he wouldn't take back what they had, he just wished that he hadn't told him that he loved him. He didn't want to love him if it meant he had to lose him but now he didn't have the choice. He was in love with Scott and he thought that he had felt the same.

The doubt had been growing in his mind for a while now but he had hoped himself wrong. It was starting to look more and more like the truth.

He barely slept that night, his mind wouldn't shut off. He left early in the morning because he couldn't bear to hear the words that Scott was holding in. The sound of his voice when he had come to bed was something different to what he'd heard before and if that meant that he was about to tear his heart from his chest then he didn't think he was quite ready for it yet. He just needed some time alone.

So he had left early, left the room, left the apartment but he wasn't alone. Once he started walking he heard someone following him and for a moment his heart seemed to fall out of his chest but when the scent hit his nostrils it wasn't Scott, it was Lydia.

_"Isaac! Where are you going?" She said, shivering in the cold morning air._

_"Just for a walk, you should be back inside where it's warmer." He said._

_"I'm perfectly fine. Why are you out here so early?"_

_"I just needed to be _alone_." He said._

_"Is this about the kiss?" She asked and that time his heart did fall out of his chest. Lydia's eyes got wide when she saw the expression on his face and tried to backtrack. "I… uh… what I meant was-"_

_"They kissed?" He asked softly._

_Lydia just stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "If I'm going by what she texted to me then… yes."_

_His mind was begging him to ask her all the questions he knew she didn't have. _How? When? Where were they? Did he kiss her or did she kiss him? Why? What did it mean? _He just swallowed hard and searched the ground at his feet for some kind of answer._

_"I'm sorry… I thought you and Scott-"_

_"Why… what happened?" He asked, cutting her off._

_"I don't know the whole story; I think it should be Scott who tells you anything." She said._

_"Please can you just tell me what you know?" He begged, his eyes glassy and she felt her own heart breaking as she looked into them._

_She sighed again and slipped her arm through his, walking down the path but on a road to nowhere in particular. "Well… she said that they just went for a walk and sat down to talk. And they talked for a long time."_

_"Did she tell him… does she want to get back together with him?"_

_"I don't know, but she told him that she still loves him." Isaac felt like he had pins and needles running through his body, he felt numb. "And… Isaac he said that he still loves her too."_

_It was like he had been thrown in an ice cold bath, like every part of him was screaming and aching and burning all at the same time._

_"Oh." That was all he could manage._

_"I think you really need to talk to him about it. I don't know if that's just her side or-"_

_"No, it's true, it has to be true."_

_She squeezed his arm a little more. "Let's go and get some breakfast. You can talk about it if you want or we don't have to say anything."_

He didn't want to say anything or think anything, he just wanted to shut off his mind, but it was still ticking over hours later and Scott still hadn't messaged or called. He was starting to think that being alone for a while longer might actually do him some good.

Scott kept looking at his phone but he had nothing from Isaac. He knew that he probably didn't want to talk to him, he probably didn't want to know what had happened last night but Scott knew that he needed to. Something had to be said and something had to be done.

He sent a message to Stiles asking him if he had seen Isaac but there was no luck there.

**Sorry man, this time he wasn't in my bed. U want help to look?**

Scott sighed, knowing that he didn't want to be found. Then he realised that he knew where Isaac would go if he was trying to hide.

_All G. I think I know where to find him._

**Can you please let me know when you do? And once you've talked to him you better explain everything to me, OK?**

Scott didn't bother replying to that, he just hopped on his bike and drove off down the streets. He drove through the suburbs and even past Jackson's street before he found the right one.

He stopped at a house that looked like any other, the 'For Sale' sign on the front lawn looking a little bit shabby and the grass was overgrown but it was just your average suburban house.

He parked the bike in the drive and walked around the side to find one of the windows unlocked, pushing it upwards and climbing through. He dropped his helmet on the couch and walked through the house, following his nose until he opened the door to the master bedroom.

Sitting on the floor and against the wall was Isaac, one knee up and staring down at the other. As Scott entered the room he looked up at him and the two started at one another, not sure who should be the one to speak first.

Scott didn't know what he would say and Isaac didn't know if he was going to say _anything_ so they remained staring at one another, the silence swallowing the room until all they could hear was the sound of the other's beating heart.

**A/N: Try this link for the trailer!**

** user/WolvesChaos/media/Teen%20Wolf%20-%20Mostly%20 just%20Sterek/ScisaacTrailer1_ **


	6. Chapter 6

"How did you find me?" Isaac said softly.

"You weren't anywhere else." Scott replied.

"I didn't think anyone would look here."

"It's _your_ house."

Isaac sighed. "Not really, not for long."

Scott looked away, looking around the room and at anything other than Isaac as he urged the words out of his mouth. "Are you okay?" He said so softly that human ears might not have picked it up.

"What do you think Scott?" He said quietly, his teeth coming down hard on his bottom lip.

He sighed. "I'm sorry that you had to get caught up in the middle of this…"

"I'm not in the middle of this, I'm on the outside looking in to see if there's still room for me to be there."

"Well… I never wanted to hurt you."

"By kissing Allison?" He said and Scott's head shot up.

"How did you-"

"Does it matter? It's true isn't it?" He wasn't yelling or crying, he was just speaking while trying not to let his voice crack.

Scott nodded. "Yeah… it's true."

Isaac nodded back, trying to force back his tears as he spoke. "And that you love her?"

Scott didn't say anything but he didn't have to, they both knew that it was the truth. He didn't know what to say, he didn't know how to start. "Isaac…"

"I already knew that you loved her Scott, I knew that before last night and before today… I've known it for a long time and don't try to tell me that she's not the reason you don't want your mom to know about us or… or anything else. I know that part of you still wants her and if I'm honest I've just been waiting for you to come out with it and say that she wants you back." A tear dropped down over his cheek and Scott couldn't stand it.

"I'm sorry Isaac." He took long strides over to him and dropped to his knees, brushing away his tears.

"Scott don't…" He said, taking hold of Scott's wrist but instead of pushing him away he held on to it tightly. "Did you mean it?"

"What? Did I mean what?" He asked, one hand cupping Isaac's face and the other holding tightly to his shoulder.

"When you said you loved me did you mean it or did you just not want me to feel like an idiot?"

"Why would you-"

"Because you're still in love with Allison! If she asked, you'd go back to her. I'm not the only one who thinks so." He said.

"It's not that simple anymore." Scott swallowed.

"But it was, until I did something about my feelings for you everything was easy. You were waiting for Allison, you still are Scott." He said.

"I didn't expect to feel something for anyone else, you can't blame me for still having feelings for her."

"I don't blame you Scott, I just thought that you'd figure out what you wanted before now. I should never have…" His voice trailed off and Scott leant in to rest his head against Isaac's.

"I'm so sorry Isaac, I didn't want you to get hurt and I know I should have thought it through more but-"

"Do you love me?" Isaac's eyes turned upward to stare straight into Scott's.

"Isaac I-"

"Do you… love me?" He asked again.

"Of course I do, I love you." He whispered, running his fingers through Isaac's delicate curls.

"Do you love her more?"

"I don't know."

"You have to make a choice. She still loves you, and I love you too. You can't stay in the middle and have both. Did… did she say that she wanted the two of you to get back together?"

"She doesn't really know what she wants." Scott said.

"Well I want _you_. I know it's not that simple for you but I'm here, and I want you and I love you." He pleaded. "But… if you stand here right now and tell me you want her more I'll walk away. If she makes you happy I won't stop you from making that choice but I need you to know how I feel before you do."

Scott let his other hand reach up to caress Isaac's square jaw and tilted his lips up until they found his own. They were soft and damp from his tears but they felt like home and he didn't know if he was ready to let them go.

As he pulled them apart he looked into his eyes again. "Allison is the first person I ever really loved, she's the first one who ever really loved me." Isaac nodded, his eyes turning away. "… but with you…" They darted back, hating himself for being so vulnerable but needing to hear his words and to see them fall from his lips. "With you… it was like falling for my best friend, and you just get me in way that she'll never be able to… I just don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

"It's not about what you're supposed to do." Isaac said softly.

Scott closed his eyes, he really wished this was an easy choice but it wasn't. Was he ready to let go of Allison? Was he ready to finally come clean about his relationship with Isaac? He had no answers.

Without warning Isaac let him go and pulled away, standing up and walking over to the door leaving Scott on his knees and with a bewildered look on his face. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm not, but I think I need you to leave." He said.

Scott stood up and walked over to him. "Isaac…"

"It's not about me, it's about you. You have to make some kind of decision and if you can't make one soon… I don't want to put a deadline on you Scott but I can't live in this state anymore. I can't sit back and be with you knowing that tomorrow you might tell me that you're going back to her. If you can't choose soon then I will, and there's only one decision that I can make."

Scott sighed. "I know." He said. "You have to believe me when I say I never wanted to hurt you."

Isaac nodded and stepped away from the door to let him pass. Scott tried to reach out to him but he pulled back and Scott hung his head.

"I'm sorry."

"Me too." Isaac said as he watched Scott slowly leave the house, listening to his footsteps and the sound of his bike starting up until he was driving down the street and he was left in total silence again.

_Derek – _

I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to bring Jackson into the pack. I really don't. All he does is complain.

He probably hasn't cleaned a thing in his life which is why he was terrible at it. I was just thankful that he was finally gone. I barely had the chance to sit down before I heard someone approaching from downstairs.

I let out a groan and waited for the lift to open, groaning even louder when my uncle walked through with his arrogant little grin.

"What do you want?" I snapped.

He tilted his head to the side. "Did we have a bad night?"

"Only the parts of it that I spent with you." I said.

"Well that's too bad because I think we need to spend a bit more time tending to our little problem." He took a seat on the couch opposite me and I glared at him.

"I'm going to tell them you know, before the full moon. If we're right then we can't let them be unprepared." I said.

"Who says there's anything to prepare for?"

I raised my eyebrow. "If there is nothing to prepare for then why do you keep hunting me down to talk about it?"

"You don't need them to sort this out Derek, they're teenagers and they probably have much less interesting things on their tiny little minds." He said.

I shook my head. "They're also my pack."

"Yes well, you did decide to make your pack out of a group of teenagers so I suppose it's to be expected."

"I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. You were the one who turned Scott."

"That's true, but you have to admit that Scott's got a little more… something… than the rest of them. I mean, he had the chutzpah to keep up a relationship with a hunter."

"Don't try to justify yourself." I said.

"Well fine, I take your point. How is the little woman, still retired?" He smiled.

"They're not together anymore." I said, standing up to walk into the kitchen, trying to get away from him.

"No? How heartbreaking."

"What do you want this time? Is there something I should know or are you just here to annoy me?"

He gave me a pained look. "Derek… it hurts that you think of me that way." I stared at him blankly. "We know they're here, we just don't know why so maybe we should get to the figuring that out."

"You know that to do that we'll have to confront them."

"Not necessarily. I happen to like the element of surprise." His lips twisted into a smile.

"I'm not going to attack them. I don't want to make enemies if I can help it."

"Do you really think that they'll be friend?"

"No, what I want here is a truce." Peter rolled his eyes.

"Don't we have enough of those?"

"This is my pack, not yours."

"I came to you as family, not pack."

'No, you came to me because you can't take on the three of them without my help and you were hoping to find it. Well that's not how I run things so tomorrow I'm going to call a pack meeting and then it'll be out in the open for all of them to cast their judgements on."

"Maybe we should have a vote."

"I'm the alpha, they won't go against my ruling." I said, a snarl lacing its way into my voice.

He put his hands up in surrender. "Can I just ask that when you do decide to make your move that you allow me the pleasure of standing by your side?" I am getting sick to death of his sarcasm.

"I'm going to need your help anyway." I said.

He smiled, "well then I suppose it's settled."

"Can you leave me alone now?" I asked.

"Why, certainly." He said with a small bow that made me grind my teeth.

He headed out as quickly as he had come and now I'm just in a bad mood. I walked up to the bedroom to find my book and just lay back in bed reading, happy for some peace and quiet.

It may have been a few hours later that I was interrupted but it felt like no time at all. My phone buzzed in my pocket, a message coming through. As I checked it I saw that it was from Stiles.

**Hey SW I think you need to go check on Isaac**

I grunted a little.

_Why?_

**Long story, Scott told me he was at his house and he wanted to be alone**

_If he wants to be alone then why do I need to check on him?_

**Just do it, he'll talk to you**

I sighed and knew that there was something wrong. I could kill Scott for this, but I won't.

_Fine_

**Text me later honey ;)**

_Don't make me rip your throat out_

He has to push it that little bit too far. I shoved my phone in my pocket and knew that he was right about Isaac, I needed to see him and make sure he was alright. If he was at his house then something had to be wrong. I don't think he's been back in a long while.

When his father had died Isaac exercised his legal right to choose where he lived, he was over sixteen and he knew he couldn't afford to keep the house so he had to organise with the lawyers and the bank to sell the house, the overdue mortgage payments would be paid off with the money from the sale and the rest would go under Isaac's name.

I was all too familiar with lawyers and inheritance issues. I wish I couldn't relate to Isaac about it but I can.

I locked up and headed out to the Camaro, on my way to Isaac's old house. When I pulled up I couldn't see any lights on, despite the sun sitting low in the sky. I tried the door and found it unlocked, walking through the house and knowing exactly where he was; the master bedroom.

As I walked up the hall and stood in the doorway I heard him sigh.

"Did Scott send you in here?" He asked.

"No," I answered, leaning against the frame.

"Right, must have been Stiles." He muttered.

"It couldn't have just been me?"

"You never would have found me here."

"No, but Scott did." I said and he shook his head. "Why _did_ you come here?"

"I don't know, I just did." I nodded and walked in.

He was sitting on the floor and leaning up against the wall. I didn't switch on the light I just wandered over at sat next to him, stretching out just the same.

"You're not going to give me some big speech?" He asked.

"I don't do that." I said.

Why don't any of them seem to get that I don't do talking?

We sat in silence for a while, I'm not sure how long. If he wanted to say anything he'd do it at his own pace. I heard my pocket buzzing and shook my head at Stiles' impatience.

"Maybe you should get that." Isaac said.

"It'll still be there later."

He sighed and pulled his knees up against his chest. "Yeah… I guess it will."

Maybe that was a bad choice of words on my part. This is why I never say anything. I just waited some more, knowing Isaac well enough to know that something was getting ready to come out of his mouth.

Finally he spoke up. "Hey Derek, do you ever worry about losing Stiles?"

I sighed. "Yes… but not in the way you mean."

"You worry that he's going to die?"

"I worry that I'm going to kill him. Not with my own hands but as a result of him being with me."

"I don't want to lose _everything_." He said softly.

"You really think _Scott _was everything?"

"He's the only thing I've got; everyone else is dead or gone. To me… he is everything."

I sighed, knowing exactly what he meant. He had no family and no home, Scott was the one thing that had made him feel both no matter where he was. I know that feeling.

"You've got the pack. That's not going to change."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, I just thought I had Scott too."

I didn't answer. I didn't have much to say that would help him.

"I pushed him to talk to her." He said. "I know it had to be done but I almost wish we could just go back to pretending that this thing between them didn't exist. He'll choose her; he was always going to choose her."

After that he didn't say anything, not a word. We sat in his parents' old bedroom in silence and I don't know what I was waiting for but I was waiting and it didn't matter how long. I wasn't going to leave him alone when that's exactly how he felt.

He's my pack, and I'm not going to leave him this way.

_Scott – _

When I made it home I saw mom's car was parked and I didn't want her to see me. I know she would have heard the bike but I don't care. I climbed up the side of the house to enter through my window.

I went straight to the bathroom and locked the door, running the shower and not being able to get out of my clothes fast enough. I tore off my shirt and threw it to the ground. I balled up my fists as my body began to shake.

I didn't know if I was angry with myself or upset but great sobs heaved my body forward and back and once my clothes were strewn across the floor I stepped into the tub and sat back, letting the water run over me as I put my head in my hands.

How could I let it get this far out of control? I'm hurting him, I saw it in his eyes that I was killing him inside with every admission. I couldn't lie to him even if I wanted to but he needed to know.

How am I supposed to choose between Allison and Isaac? It can't be both and right now I don't even know what I'm doing.

"Scott?" My mom's voice was muffled through the door but I could still hear the worry in it. "Scott are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" I called back, my voice not quite my own.

"Are you sure?"

"Mom I'm fine! Just go!" I sobbed.

I wasn't going to fool her like that, there was no way. She didn't say anything else but she must be out there worried which just made me feel worse.

I let the water fall over my back and shoulders as I rested my head on my knees and sobbed to myself. I can't help if I love more than one person can I? I don't want either of them to feel hurt because of me but it's already done.

I heard it in Isaac's voice that he didn't believe me when I said that I loved him, but I do. I didn't mean to fall for him the way I did. I tried not to let myself but for some reason I couldn't stop it, I couldn't stop myself from seeing him.

I don't know how long I was in there for but it must have been a while because the water started to run cold. I climbed out with shaking hands and wrapped the towel around my waist. As I stared at myself in the mirror I wanted to punch my reflection, I wanted him to pay for the damage he caused, the damage I caused.

I dried off slowly and pulled on a shirt and my shorts, hanging up the towel and finally opening the door. I only took one step into the room before my mother was standing beside me, her eyes fraught with worry.

"I might not be as intuitive as you Scott but I know when something is wrong with my own son." She put her hand on my shoulder and my face fell.

"I'm sorry mom, I don't want you to worry… it's nothing, it's nothing." I blubbered, letting her guide me to the bed and sit herself down beside me.

"You can tell me what's going on Scott, all I want is for you to talk to me." She said, stroking my hair and resting her cheek against the top of my head.

After calming myself down enough to speak I sighed. "Do you think it's possible to love more than one person?"

"Is this about Allison?" She asked softly.

"Kind of."

"Someone else?"

"I don't know how it happened… it just… did."

"Are you and Allison together?" I shook my head. "So you're seeing someone else?"

"Maybe… we might not be anymore." She sighed too, holding me tighter as I told her how I said I would wait for Allison. "I just… while I was waiting I got… someone else just came in and…"

"Listen Scott, you can love any number of people at once, you just have to know when one thing is over and how to let it go. Do you want to get back together with Allison?"

"Well I love her…"

"You might love her, but being with her is completely different and that's what you have to decide. If this 'someone else' wants you here and now then maybe it's time to give them the chance they deserve. I can't imagine you falling for anyone who didn't deserve it." I sat quietly as I let her words sink in and she turned to kiss my head. "Love isn't the only thing you have to think about Scott, being with someone is so much more than that."

I knew she was right. What she said made so much sense and I know there's only one thing to do.

"I know this might not mean much coming from me, I'm probably the person with the least luck when it comes to love." She said and I managed a small smile.

I looked up at her. "I love you mom."

Her face melted into a smile and she pulled me in again for a hug. "I love you too. You'll always have me, I promise."

She held me for a long time, and I was glad for her warm embrace. When she finally stood up she walked to the door and turned to look back at me.

"If you're hungry there's some food downstairs." She smiled.

"Thanks mom, I think I'm just going to stay up here and get some sleep."

"Okay." She nodded. "Just do what feels right Scott, you can't get that wrong." She left me with a warm smile and I let out another breath of air and turned to my phone on the bedside table.

I took a hold of it and punched in the number that I knew off by heart. I put the phone to my ear and waited out the first three rings.

"Hey, it's me." I said softly. "I need to tell you something, I need to tell you that… that I want you."


	7. Chapter 7

_24 hours later_

"So, what happened?" Stiles asked.

"I don't know, she hasn't said much to me." Lydia said with a shrug.

"Well what about Isaac?" Erica said.

Stiles shook his head. "I only know what Derek told me."

"Which is?" Lydia said with her eyebrows raised.

He sighed, "Not much."

"Invite her over here so she can clear it up for us." Erica said, rolling her eyes.

"She hasn't spoken to me since he called her last night." Lydia shrugged again.

"Wait, he what?" Stiles sat up straight and stared at her.

"Did I stutter?"

"He called Isaac as well." He said.

"I don't even know why I'm here." Erica muttered.

"You can pretend this doesn't interest you if you like but we both know that you're as big a gossip as I am." Lydia said and Erica just shook her head. "What happened with Isaac?"

Stiles sighed, telling them the same story that Derek had told him.

_Well, Derek was at his house with him and I guess they weren't saying much because Derek doesn't do big rousing pep-talks, or even small pep-talks. The best you're going to get from him is a few sarcastic comments._

_Anyway, he said that they talked a little but then they just kind of sat in silence until Isaac's phone rang. Derek told him to answer it and as he did he left Isaac on his own. Something about not wanting to invade his privacy or whatever. He did say that it was Scott's voice on the line but that was all he heard._

_He went out and sat in his car for a while and then Isaac came out and he took him back to his place, never to be seen again._

"That's it?" Erica asked.

"I thought you didn't care." Lydia said sweetly.

"Well if I'm going to be here I might as well join in."

"Yeah okay, what did Allison tell you?" Stiles said impatiently.

"She hasn't said much to me, she called me after he called her and then I've heard nothing since."

"You know it's getting dark out here, aren't you guys afraid of what happens under the light of the moon?" Erica said, earning a glare from both of the others. "Fine, go on then, get to telling us."

Lydia rolled her eyes before beginning her story.

_I was just at home texting Jackson, he was being a jerk as usual so I was in a very trying mood. Anyway, I was halfway through a strongly worded text when the phone started ringing and I almost didn't answer. I thought it was probably something less important than it was but for some reason I picked it up._

_I started to say that I was very busy abusing Jackson for being an ass when she sort of blurted out that Scott had called her and that he was on his way over. I think I must have stopped saying anything for a while but she kept talking._

_I mean, she mostly said things like 'he wanted things to finally be right between them' and that she had no idea what to do and I was inches from asking her about Isaac but then I figured that Scott still hadn't told her and if they were getting back together then maybe he wouldn't tell her._

_She said that she wasn't ready to sort everything out yet and I just said that maybe it needed to be done. Then she just sort of said goodbye and she was gone._

"That's it?" Stiles said. "When she said 'he wanted things to be right' did she say that he wanted to get back together?"

"She just said what she said and she was gone." Lydia said.

"So call her." They both turned to Erica again who rolled her eyes and lay back down on the grass. "Not that I care."

The other two lay back with her. They had been sitting in the park for over an hour, for a while they had tried not to talk about that thing that everyone was thinking. Allison, Scott and Isaac had all missed school that day so none of them had the chance to talk to them.

The sun was almost set and so far they were no closer to figuring the whole thing out. Stiles and Lydia weren't shy about admitting their interest in the subject and couldn't help but gossip. Stiles never was good at keeping secrets. He has been so close to telling his father about werewolves accidentally and Lydia was only able to keep the secrets that mattered, the others being too interesting to keep quiet. Erica pretended that she didn't care but secretly she enjoyed finally having friends to gossip with, not that she would really consider Lydia a friend.

"This is so ridiculous, isn't it?" Lydia said.

"Haven't I been saying that this whole time?" Erica said.

"Oh for god's sake, Lydia, just do the call thing." Stiles said, sitting up.

The others followed suit and Lydia grabbed her purse, pulling out her phone. "I've already tried this like five times but I'll give it another go."

She searched for the number and pressed the green call button. As she put it to her ear Stiles saw Erica tune her ears in and tried to strain his own ears to listen. They didn't expect anything to come of the call which is why they all looked bewildered when the grainy voice on the other end of the line spoke up.

"Allison! Hi!" Lydia said, her eyes growing wide. "What happened last night? You never called me back."

Stiles couldn't hear what Allison was saying but clearly the other two could. He huffed and jutted out his lip, his 'I'm annoyed' face in full swing.

"No, that's okay, clearly you had bigger issues. What happened?" They all sat there waiting as Allison explained everything, Erica and Lydia exchanging looks and Stiles was just dying to hear what she was saying. "He did? Well what did – oh… no I know, I know… Yeah, okay, I'll see you tomorrow then… bye." She hung up and sighed.

Stiles was busting for answers. "Well?!" He said.

"Well I know what happened." She said.

"What? What the hell happened?!"

When he left Isaac's house the previous evening Derek had waited for a while in his car. He wanted to give Isaac the chance to come with him back to the loft but he hadn't expected him to come out.

He had only been there ten minutes when he saw him leave through the front door, not bothering to lock it behind him. Derek flashed his lights and Isaac turned toward him, pausing for a moment to think before heading towards him.

As he climbed into the car Derek said nothing. Unlike the others he didn't feel the need to know what was going on between Scott and Isaac. He had driven him home and let him do as he pleased, which consisted of heading straight inside and up to his bedroom.

He didn't come out that morning and Derek wasn't his father so he didn't force him into going to school. He did make sure that Stiles was going, mainly because he wanted him to succeed but partly because he knew that he would be over straight away to pester Isaac.

He didn't see much of Isaac all day, he spent the time holed up in his room, coming out only to get glasses of water and see if there was anything to eat. He came down a little more when he realised that Derek wasn't going to ask him any questions and that they were alone.

All until that evening at least, when Isaac sat trying to study at the table and Derek was reading on the couch. The two of them heard the lift kick into gear and watched the doors until they slowly creaked open to reveal Scott standing there.

Isaac's gaze was unfaltering and Scott only broke to look over to Derek. He rolled his eyes and got up off the couch with his book. He walked past Scott and down the lift, annoyed at the fact that he was leaving his own apartment but he would rather be gone than have to listen to the two of them bicker or scream or worse; make up.

He shuddered to think of it and in seconds the doors were closed and they were gone from sight.

Scott looked over at Isaac who had his bottom lip between his teeth and worry in his eyes. He swallowed hard and stepped forward a little.

"I uh… I talked to Allison last night." He said.

"Oh." Isaac didn't know what else to say so he just waited.

"I called her because I thought it was finally time that we sorted everything out." Isaac nodded to him.

"That's good, you need to know what… options you have." He turned away.

"Isaac…" He looked up and Scott gave him a weak smile. "Isaac I told her everything. I told her how I felt and what I wanted and about … about us."

"You what?" he asked, a little shocked.

"Isaac I told you that I wanted you and after… after I had a talk with my mom I knew that I had to tell Allison that I wasn't going to wait anymore." He stepped forward, walking towards him.

"You really told her about you and me?" He asked.

"I've never felt anything like what I feel with you and I haven't exactly been fair to you." He said, guilt laden in his voice.

"You said that you wanted me but you had to talk to Allison, I thought…"

"Sorry, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not so good with words." Isaac couldn't help but manage a little smile. "I want to be with you Isaac and I think that I don't want to hide it anymore, even though most of them already know."

Isaac pulled a face. "I'm pretty sure they all know now, except maybe Danny."

"I promise I'll get to telling my mom-"

"Hey…" Isaac walked up to him and took his hand lightly. "If you need to wait or, I don't know, if you aren't ready for that then I'm happy to just have the pack know. I just couldn't handle feeling like some kind of dirty secret."

"I'm sorry I made you feel like that." Scott sighed.

"Do you really mean it though? Do you really want us to be together?" Isaac asked.

Scott looked up and into his eyes, reaching up to caress his cheek. "I love you, and that… that just feels right. I can't get that wrong, can I?"

Isaac's smile got brighter and he let go of Scott's hand to take him by the waist. He pulled him in close and Scott looped his other arm around Isaac's back, pinning them together as their lips met in a tender embrace.

Scott's body melted as Isaac's lips branded him in a way that none other had ever done. The idea of telling his mom about them still made him nervous beyond a doubt but in that moment all he could feel was the ecstasy of having Isaac back in his arms.

Isaac couldn't even begin to explain how he felt in that moment. He had been so worried, so scared that he would lose Scott and now he had chosen him over Allison; he just couldn't believe it. He kissed him with more passion than he ever had before and Scott had to pull his lips away just to catch his breath.

Isaac didn't let him go; he didn't want to ever let him slip through his fingers.

"Isaac…" He breathed.

"I know…" He whispered back.

Scott smiled. "No you don't… you don't know what I was going to say."

"I do, I can smell it on you and I know you don't want to take that step yet." He saw Scott's cheeks flush as he turned his face away. "Come on, let's just go lie in bed and talk." He said.

"Isaac I-"

"Hey… just come on, I'm tired of being away from you and to be honest your apologies are starting to get annoying." He grinned and Scott let out a laugh.

"Oh really?" He said.

"Yeah, really." He gave him one more quick kiss before pulling himself out of Scott's arms and taking his hand.

Scott smiled, his stomach fluttering as he realised that finally making the choice and getting it out in the open made him feel so much better. It helped that Isaac's smile had come back too.

When they made it to Isaac's bedroom they kicked off their shoes and climbed under the sheets, Scott lying back to let Isaac rest his head on his chest. His heartbeat sounded like the most soothing thing in the world.

"So… how'd things go with Allison then? What did she say?" Isaac asked, his fingers tracing lines up and down Scott's arm.

Scott sighed. "I don't know really. It felt like it went okay but I just don't think she was expecting… well, I don't think she expected me to find someone else anyway."

"I guess not." He said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Scott wriggled down so that he was on his side, Isaac doing the same until they were face to face.

"Why did you do it?" He said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you tell her that you couldn't wait anymore? I thought you told her the other night that you loved her." He said.

"Yeah, I did. I just…" He sighed again. "You were right and my mom was right, I can't just love her and wait until she's ready to have me back – if that day was ever going to come. I mean, I love her but that's not the only part of being with someone. You wanted to be with me and we have something that I didn't have with her." Isaac nodded, lips turning up slightly at the corners.

"_And_…?" He said cheekily.

Scott rolled his eyes. "And I love you."

Isaac leant in, kissing him once, and then twice before just resting his lips against the edge of Scott's jaw. "I love you too." He mumbled. "You sure you don't have any regrets?"

"You know what… I thought that finally ending things with Allison was going to be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do but it actually kind of made me feel… free. I don't know, it sounds stupid but it was like I was just stuck in one place." He said, hoping that his words made some kind of sense.

"What did she think about you and me?" Isaac asked.

"She was… pretty shocked to say the least. I think she's probably going to keep her distance for a bit." He sighed.

"I guess you had to know that things couldn't stay the same." Isaac reached out to run his hand through Scott's short brown hair.

"I know, I just hope it's not too weird for her to stay with the group. I'd hate for that to be my fault." He said.

"Her and Lydia are pretty close, I'm sure she won't keep away for long."

"She might, I don't know if she wants to spend her time with her ex and his boyfriend."

Isaac smiled, "Is that what I am? Am I your boyfriend?"

Scott laughed and rolled his eyes playfully. "Well you're not my _girl_friend. What? What is it?"

Isaac was just starting thoughtfully, his eyes studying Scott's face in a way that made his cheeks hot and his heart race. "It's nothing… it's just that you never really called me that before. It's nice." He shrugged.

Scott smiled and leant in for a kiss. "So I can keep calling you that then?"

"Scott, you can call me anything you like; just so long as I can say that you're mine."

He pulled Isaac in closer, the heat from his body almost overwhelming but he didn't care. "I think that's a fair deal." He said, leaving him a kiss that he was sure to remember.

"So… did you get any study done today son?" The sheriff asked as he and Stiles sat down for dinner, a rare occasion.

"Yeah, I had school all day dad." He replied, shovelling in some more pasta.

"That's not what I meant by study."

"Isn't it the same thing?" He said with a mouthful.

"No, it's not. I thought you would have been thinking more about college this year." He said.

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Why is everyone obsessed with college already? Come on, we've got time."

"Sure, you've got time but don't you have any idea about what you want to do when you leave?" The sheriff said, staring his son down.

He shrugged. "I'll probably go to college."

"To do what exactly Stiles?"

"I don't know, maybe I'll do criminology or something."

"Criminology? Really?" His father looked a little honoured and Stiles shook his head.

"Well I always seem to be doing your job so why not learn how to do it better." He teased.

His father laughed. "Is that so? Well if you're going to do it then you make sure you do it better than me. It's all a father can hope for." He smiled.

"Seriously? You think I should do it?"

"I think you'd make a great detective, not a local cop. You're too big for this town Stiles, I've always known that." Stiles gave a little nod and went back to eating his dinner. "Plus, you've got somewhere to do work experience if you need it. I might have to do a little smooth talking but it's a start."

"Whoa, whoa dad, I said I maybe want to do criminology, I'm so not even thinking about it all yet."

"Well you better get to it then." His father nodded at him.

They both heard the doorbell ring and Stiles got up quickly. "That'll be Derek." He said.

He headed through the lounge room and let Derek in. He walked with him back into the kitchen to say hello to the sheriff.

"Evening sheriff." He nodded politely.

"Nice to see you Derek, do you want to grab a plate? It's just spaghetti though, nothing fancy." He said with a small smile.

Derek was about to speak up when Stiles let out a loud laugh. "He can't, too many carbs." He teased and Derek narrowed his eyes.

"Ignore him." Derek said.

"Usually do." He said and Stiles seemed a little offended. "It's on the stove, you can help yourself."

"Thanks sir." He said, Stiles stifled a laugh.

He would never get tired of Derek trying to stay in his dad's good-books. They finished of their dinner, Derek only ate a little and refused to let the sheriff wash up, earning himself a few more brownie points. As his dad headed into the lounge to relax with a glass of whiskey Stiles began to question Derek about Isaac.

"So did Isaac tell you what happened? Lydia told me that Allison-"

"Stiles, you should know that I'm not getting involved in any of their business and I suggest you do the same." He said, his long sleeves rolled up as he loaded the plates into the dishwasher.

"You know you're so cute when you do housework." He said, wrapping his hands around Derek's waist and kissing him on the shoulder.

Derek tensed and gritted his teeth. "Is that supposed to make me talk?"

"No, it was just an observation. If I wanted to make you talk I would just do this…" He slipped his hand down until he was cupping the front of his jeans.

"_Stiles_!" Derek hissed, pulling his hips out of his grasp and narrowing his eyes. "Your dad is in the other room."

"Oh come on I wasn't going to do anything." Derek shook his head and went back to the dishes. "But seriously, you have to know something, anything. Just a little scrap of information for me to relay – _keep_ – for me to keep to myself."

He rolled his eyes. "Scott's over there right now, in my house."

"Trust you to be pissed off at being kicked out of the loft." Stiles scoffed.

"Hey, I was not 'kicked out', I left because I can't avoid them in that place." He said.

"Aw Derek, that's so sweet."

"Don't make me kick your ass." He growled.

Stiles chuckled. "So what happened?"

"What?"

"With Scott for god's sake!"

"I don't know, I left so I wouldn't have to know. You're going to have to call Scott to find that out." He said.

"You're right." Stiles reached into his pocket and took out his phone.

Derek grabbed him by the wrist to stop him. "Well not _now_."

"Right, the make-up sex, or is it break up sex?" He pondered the thought and Derek rolled his eyes again. "Speaking of…" His hands went into another groping mode and Derek was forced to defend himself, lest the sheriff walked in and throttled him.


	8. Chapter 8

_One week later_

"So…" Lydia said.

She had her legs crossed, her favourite red pumps on, and a darling blue dress that hung low at the back. She twirled a few strands of loose hair around her perfectly manicured finger and tilted her head to the side.

"So what?" Allison said, holding her coffee close to her lips and giving Lydia a look of mock confusion.

Lydia let out a huffing sound. "You know perfectly well 'so what'. Are you ever going to come back to talking to everyone?"

"It's only been a week Lydia. Am I allowed to take some time to get used to the fact that my ex-boyfriend is – that he's –"

"Dating one of his best friends?" Lydia offered up.

"Yeah, yeah that one." Allison mumbled, putting her coffee down on the table and sighing.

"Well, you did tell him that you were breaking up with him." Lydia shrugged, sliding the spoon for her coffee down her tongue and giving Allison a pair of wide eyes.

She stared back, her jaw dropped and an exasperated gasp falling from her lips. "Lydia."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying that he's a guy and they can't – and won't – wait forever."

"Are we still talking about Scott?" Allison asked, suspecting something more to be on her mind.

"Of course we are." She said. "Who else would we be talking about?"

"Oh I don't know, Jackson maybe." They both looked up to see Erica standing with her arms folded by their table.

"And who invited you?" Allison said coldly.

"Are you still mad at me for not telling you about Isaac and Scott?" She said as if she couldn't care less and Allison rolled her eyes. "You know that Lydia knew too."

Allison's head snapped to Lydia who was looking from one to the other with her coffee at her lips, taking a sip before trying to think of a decent excuse.

"I… uh… well I didn't so much _know_ as I did have an inkling." She said.

"And you didn't think to share it with me?" Allison asked.

"It wasn't… confirmed per say… why are you even here?" Lydia looked up at Erica who smiled.

"Derek's called a pack meeting and he wants the two of you there… not that I have any idea why." She mumbled the last bit and Allison shook her head.

"Is it wrong that I don't care what Derek wants right now? He's not _my _alpha." She said.

"Well I was told to collect the two humans and bring them to the loft because this is apparently important, and FYI I'm pretty sure Stiles and Jackson and even Boyd mentioned your names and Derek agreed to include you with a lot of convincing." Erica said.

Lydia sighed. "Come on then." She said, putting both feet on the ground and finishing off her cup of coffee.

"What? No, I'm not going." Allison said.

"Allison-"

"I don't want to be there." She said.

"Are you seriously that upset that Scott's sticking it to Isaac?" Erica asked and Allison gave her a foul look.

"I'm not catatonic; I can take care of myself. I just don't want to go."

"Well, I'm going, because if something's going on in this town then I think I should probably find out first hand." Lydia said, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder.

Allison shook her head and pursed her lips. "Fine, but don't expect me to like it."

"It's okay honey, we never like it." Erica said, putting a hand on her shoulder and Allison juts gave her a strange look.

"What?"

"Just trying to speak your language sister."

"Well don't." Allison said, getting up to follow her out.

Erica shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"So did Derek say why he was calling this meeting or did he just make his usual demands?" Scott asked, sitting on Isaac's bed as he watched him find a shirt.

"He demanded." Isaac said, grabbing a plain white tee and pulling it over his head.

"Why am I not surprised?" Scott muttered.

Isaac smiled, walking over to stand in front of him, putting his hands on his shoulders. Scott let his hands take Isaac by the waist and pulled him in closer.

"He has something to say so it's got to be important." Isaac said.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

Isaac leant down to kiss him and Scott's grip grew tighter. Isaac smiled under his lips and allowed Scott's tongue to slip behind his teeth and slide along his own. His body stirred and he started to laugh.

"Scott… we only just had this problem… we've got to go or we'll be late." He mumbled, letting Scott lie back as he knelt over him on the bed.

"So let's make him wait." Scott growled, grabbing Isaac's thighs and holding him down, his body pressed tightly into him.

Isaac groaned against Scott's lips, his eyes rolling shut at the senses that were engulfing him but he couldn't ignore his instinct to obey his alpha so he tore his lips away.

"I can't." He sighed.

"You don't have to listen to him you know." Scott sighed.

"I kind of do, Scott he's my alpha." He said.

"He doesn't have to be." He muttered and Isaac gave him a confused look.

"We – we should go." He said, standing up and taking a deep breath to calm himself down.

"I'm just saying that you can choose not to be a part of his pack if you want." Scott said.

"It's not that easy, you don't feel the pull that I do and besides, I like being a part of Derek's pack." He shrugged and Scott sighed.

"Alright, I'm just saying." He stood up and straightened his hair out.

"Come on, let's get to the house."

"Why doesn't he just do it here instead of making us haul ass out to the woods?" He said, taking Isaac's hand and letting him pull him out of his room.

"It's more secluded I guess." He shrugged.

"What does that matter?"

"Why don't you ask him these questions instead of interrogating me? Hell, ask Stiles, he's probably got more of an insight into Derek's mind than anyone else."

"True, sorry." He said with a smile. "You want to ride on the bike?"

Isaac shook his head. "Nah."

"You want to run don't you?"

"It's not that far."

"Are you kidding? It's miles away."

Isaac grinned. "You know this reluctance to do something physical might explain why you're getting out of shape." He raised his eyebrows a few times before setting off and Scott just scoffed at him.

"Seriously? I am not – would you slow down!" He yelled after him, following him on foot and determined to catch him so that he could beat him up a little.

Isaac was right; it wasn't that far, not with their werewolf speed and stamina. They managed to get there before Erica anyway, which was good, that way they didn't have to deal with her snide comments.

Jackson and Boyd sat on the old porch while Derek had Stiles pinned to the side of his car, speaking in hushed tones. When he saw Isaac and Scott show up he pulled himself away to greet them.

"You're late." He said.

"Erica's not here either." Scott said.

"No, she's out collecting Allison and Lydia." Scott winced a little and Isaac reached out to take his hand comfortingly.

"Right." He mumbled. "Do you want to tell us what's going on then?"

"Not without Erica." He said.

"Trust me dude, I couldn't persuade him to tell me so don't think you'll be able to." Stiles said with a grin and Derek shot him a glare. "I know, I know, shut up Stiles."

"You're learning." Derek said.

"I feel like we're interrupting a moment so we're just going to wait up here." Isaac said, dragging Scott away from more confrontation with Derek and up to the porch with the others.

"So none of you have any idea what's going on here?" Scott asked and they shook their heads.

"Something's definitely up, he seems pretty tense." Jackson said and they looked over to Derek, who was back to talking quietly with Stiles.

"Oh yeah, he looks really stressed out." Scott said sarcastically.

Jackson narrowed his eyes. "Use your nose wise-ass, he's got that nervous stench on him. It makes me edgy."

"I hate to do it, but I'm going to agree with him." Boyd said.

"Please don't tell me something is killing the townspeople again." Isaac groaned.

"Wouldn't we know if that were happening?" Jackson asked.

"Did_ you_ know that people were dropping into a coma and slowly dying because they'd been seduced by a giant cat?" Boyd asked and Jackson just started up at him.

"I'm going to go with him on that one." Isaac said.

Their ears perked up as they heard footsteps approaching. Scott's face dropped and his cheeks almost seemed to flush when Allison, Lydia and Erica walked into the clearing around the old Hale house.

Isaac almost felt guilty when Scott gripped his hand tighter rather than letting it go but the look on his face was more one of pride than anything.

"So, did we miss anything?" Erica asked as she bobbed over and sat on the hood of Derek's Camaro, making him scowl and Stiles stifle a smile.

She really did go the extra mile to annoy him.

"No." He growled, grabbing her by the arm and shoving her off.

"Hey! Easy would you?" She said.

One more growl from him and she was silent. She may like to push his buttons, especially when it came to Stiles, but she knew her place.

"Alright listen up. I know you're all less than thrilled to be here but if something comes up that's going to affect all of us then you need to know it." He said and everyone walked a little closer, ready to hear what he had to say.

"Is it really going to affect the two of us?" Allison said, nodding to Lydia who looked more than out of place in her attire.

Derek gave her a dark look. "If you want to leave be my guest, I can't dictate what _you_ do."

She let out a huff and folded her arms but didn't move. Lydia was right; she was probably better off knowing it than not.

"That's only his semi-human pack mates." The all turned to see Peter walking out from behind the house with a docile smirk on his face.

"What the hell is _he_ doing here?" Jackson asked harshly.

"_How_ the hell does he sneak up on us like that?" Isaac whispered to Scott.

"I agree, what _is_ he doing here?" Lydia said, looking slightly nervous as Peter walked closer to her.

"It's been so long, hasn't it?" He asked and she stared him down, attempting to be cool but her bottom lip twitched slightly out of place.

"Not long enough." She said.

"Peter, stop terrorising her. You've done enough of that." Derek growled and Peter shrugged, walking through their little circle to lean on the Camaro.

When he saw the murderous glare in Derek's eyes he stood up and gave him a little shrug.

"No one going to answer me?" Jackson asked.

"I'm here because I can help." Peter answered.

"Help with what exactly?" Boyd asked Derek and the rest of them turned their attention from Peter to await his answer.

He let out a sigh. "There's a new alpha in town."

Everyone was silent and most mouths had dropped, Allison and Lydia exchanged a glance and Scott and Isaac looked to one another with questioning eyes. Unsurprisingly, Stiles was the first to speak up.

"There's what? Do you mean like Peter was back when he was a psychotic murderer –"

"Thank you." Peter chimed in.

"You're welcome." Stiles said sarcastically. "Or do you mean a regular… murderous alpha?"

"Is there no in between?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, Derek." Stiles retorted.

"Enough, we don't know much, just that she's here in Beacon Hills with a pack of her own, four of them in total." Derek answered.

"She?" Isaac asked.

"Yes, and alpha she-wolf and three betas. I've been tracking them and they seemed to have settled not far from here." Peter said.

"What like in the woods or something?" Stiles asked and Peter rolled his eyes.

"No, in an apartment block about twenty minutes east of here." He said.

"Well why here? Why Beacon Hills?" Erica asked.

"We don't know, but it's almost the full moon and we want to make contact so that they know we're here." Derek said.

"Why would we want them to know we're here?" Scott asked.

"Because we don't want them starting a territory war. We don't know how friendly they are or why they're here so instead of taking them by surprise I think it would be best that we try to make contact." Derek said.

"Yes, and it will all be such a friendly occasion." Peter mocked.

Derek shot him a look and Isaac spoke up. "There's four of them and seven of us, is there any real threat?"

"Three of them were born like this, that makes them stronger." Peter said.

"How can you tell?" Scott said.

"Believe me Scott, I've been around long enough to tell."

"If you've been tracking them then maybe they already know that there are wolves here. Wouldn't they be able to smell you?" Boyd asked.

"Not always, and I don't need to explain my methods to you." He said and Stiles raised an eyebrow.

Before he had the chance to say anything sarcastic Derek stopped him. "If there's one thing I've learned from dealing with other packs in the past it's to never underestimate them. The last thing we want is a rivalry." No one had any arguments for that, mostly they just wanted nothing to do with them. "This isn't me asking, this is me telling. Peter already alerted them to our presence." He glared over him.

Peter gave him a slight grin, clearly acting without first getting Derek's approval.

"The full moon is in two night's time so the message was to meet one night before it. The last thing we need is something to go wrong the one night of the month that we could do some serious damage." Derek said.

"So you want us all there to meet a possibly savage wolf pack?" Isaac asked.

"No, just two of you, to even out the playing field." They looked slightly confused and he rolled his eyes. "I can't control him and I know he'll be there." He pointed to Peter.

"I'll go." Boyd offered.

"He said even the playing field not scare the shit out of them." Jackson snickered.

Boyd just turned slowly to look at him. "Better than knowing they could kick your ass."

"I'll go, let me get a look at this she-wolf." Erica said.

"Okay, I think if you're going to go we need someone slightly less sarcastic to go with you. Between you and Peter you won't make a great first impression." Stiles scoffed.

"Why don't we send you; that'll really make us look weak." She said.

"We're trying to tone _down_ the sarcasm." He said.

"Well what about Isaac?" Jackson said.

"Why would you suggest me?"

"Because you're a little bitch and you'll keep your mouth shut if you need to." Jackson said.

Isaac let out a growl and Peter clapped loudly. "So it's settled then, Derek, Erica, Isaac and I will meet them tomorrow night to… discuss things." He said.

"We will be discussing things." Derek said through gritted teeth.

"I suppose it will have to start that way." Peter said.

Derek turned swiftly and grabbed Peter by the shirt, slamming him into the hood of his precious Camaro. "If you make one move against them without my say so I'm going to slash your throat again and tear you apart." He snarled. "_You will not put my pack in danger_." His eyes flashed red and Peter just smiled up at him.

"Cross my heart." He said.

"Derek, calm down." Stiles said.

Derek threw Peter into the ground and stepped past him. "Meet me here tomorrow night and we'll set off from there."

"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" Isaac asked.

"You'll be fine." Derek said.

"Yeah, you're not giving me much confidence there."

"Why is this something that we needed to know?" Allison asked.

"A new pack means new dynamics. A lone wolf is one thing but this is another pack, that makes this a whole lot bigger. Plus I don't know if your father wants to know but maybe he should." Derek said.

"Oh I'm sure this new pack won't be opposed to us telling a werewolf hunter that they're in town." Peter said, dusting himself off.

"My dad is retired. He doesn't want to know about this stuff anymore." She said.

"So maybe it's better that _you_ know." Derek said and Allison gave him a strange look that never got answered.

"You think this could turn ugly, that's why you want us to know." Lydia said.

"I don't want anyone caught up in this if it turns out to be that way but no, I don't expect it to end up like that."

Lydia nodded with a sigh.

There wasn't much more that needed to be said. Some of them had a few questions and Derek answered as best he could, Isaac mostly stayed quiet. He really didn't want to have to go with the others to meet this new pack. In fact, the idea of it made him nervous. In his experience, all encounters with other people in the supernatural community haven't run so smoothly.

This was the last thing he wanted.

When they finally dispersed he wasn't really in the mood to run, instead walking in silence with Scott through the forest trees. He knew that he was watching him intently but he didn't really want to talk about it, not yet at least, and Scott didn't say anything. He would wait until Isaac said something before talking to him about it.

When they emerged from the trees he sighed. "You want to go to your place? I don't really feel like being in the loft tonight."

"Yeah, sure." Scott said. "We'll just go pick up the bike and head on over."

Stiles and Derek were already at the loft when they back but they didn't go up to see them, instead they just made their way back to Scott's place.

When they pulled into the drive Melissa was just getting out of her car. "Hey boys, you driving safely?" She asked.

"Yeah mom." Scott rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, werewolf or not your mom is going to worry." She walked over to kiss his head. She looked up at Isaac who had managed to force a smile. "About you too, god knows, someone needs to."

"_Mom_…" Scott said.

"I'm sorry that I worry but I'm not sorry if I embarrass you, that you're just going to have to suffer through." She said.

He rolled his eyes and they unlocked the front door to head inside. Melissa asked if either of them wanted dinner but they had both lost their appetites for food, at least for the time being.

They walked up the stairs and into Scott's bedroom where they both collapsed on the bed. Isaac sighed and Scott rolled onto his side, resting his hand on Isaac's stomach gently.

"Why can't everything just be simple?" He said.

Scott shrugged. "Was it ever going to be for us?"

"I guess not. I don't know what I expected when Derek offered to turn me. I probably should have seen this coming huh?"

"Yeah, probably." Isaac turned his head towards Scott and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, laugh all you want. You're not the one who might get ripped to shreds tomorrow night."

"Alright, firstly, that's not going to happen. Secondly, even if they did turn on you, I wouldn't let them hurt you." He said, craning his neck to peck Isaac on the lips.

"Like you could compete with an alpha." He grabbed Scott's arm and pulled him down with him.

"Shut up, I could try." Scott said, kissing him again as he crawled closer and swung his leg over Isaac's hips.

When Scott was kissing him like that he knew that he couldn't stay worried, he couldn't really focus on anything other than Scott's tongue licking the underside of his top lip. He let out a contented sound and Scott took that as an invitation to explore his mouth further as he let his weight press down on him.

The heat from his body had Isaac tugging at Scott's shirt to try and get him out of it. As soon as it was over his head he was reaching for Isaac's too, both of them being strewn across the floor.

Scott's lips made their way to Isaac's neck and by the sounds of it they were well received. He kissed and sucked his way slowly down over his chest, hovering over his nipple and teasing it with his flat tongue, making Isaac groan, reaching for the back of Scott's head.

"Why is it that you make me so easy?" He said softly. Scott just smiled before he paused and looked up and into his eyes. "What?" Isaac asked.

"I just… I mean… why don't we…" He said, his words getting lost in translation.

Isaac was about to ask him what he meant when all of a sudden he realised it. "You want to? I mean I thought you wanted to wait…"

"Well, we have waited, maybe now is the right time." Scott shrugged and Isaac nodded, wetting his bottom lip with his tongue.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Scott said as Isaac pulled him in for a long hard kiss that was leading to so much more.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Promise I'm trying to update as soon as possible guys!**

"Tell me again why we're meeting them by your old burned out house?" Erica asked as the four of them walked towards the old Hale house.

Isaac's stomach had been turning all day in anticipation. He really wished that Derek had told them over a week ago about this new pack, it all seemed to be happening faster than he could think it through. At least thoughts of this were keeping his mind occupied on something – anything – other than what he knew was swimming around in his brain.

"It's not like you can miss the place, it sort of sticks out." Peter said.

"He's right; they'll know it when they see it. No surprises." Derek said.

"Are you sure they even got your message?" She asked Peter.

"Well, it would have been hard for them not to."

"Please don't tell me you put a spiral on their door or something." She said.

"Obviously not, I spoke to one of the betas. I managed to catch her alone." He said with a hint of deviousness in his voice and Derek didn't like it.

"I know I'm not your alpha but sometimes I wish you would think before you just went ahead and did things." Derek growled.

"What? She didn't seem too worried about it."

"You're being awfully quiet." Erica said to Isaac, slowing her pace to walk beside him.

He shrugged. "There's no point in bickering with you. Isn't that why I'm here? To keep quiet?"

"No, you just seem to be neutral on most things and unlike the rest of us you almost never question Derek. I thought that might be useful." She said.

"You should have let Boyd come instead of you." He said.

"Why?" she narrowed her eyes.

"He's pretty similar to me in those respects don't you think?"

"Yeah but he looks like he could take someone's head off in one swipe." She said.

"I guess that's true."

"You still didn't really answer my question. Why are you so quiet? You're not fighting with Scott are you?" She sounded less than thrilled about talking to him about it and he scoffed.

"No we're not fighting… definitely not fighting." He said.

"Right, well I don't think I want to know what that means." She said.

"You seem to want to know all about it when it comes to Stiles." He turned his head slightly and she smirked over at him.

"Well that's something else entirely."

"Would both of you shut up back there?" Derek snapped and the two of them exchanged grins.

They both knew that Erica talking about Stiles made Derek instantly angry and usually it was amusing. It was still amusing as they walked through the forest but making him angry at this moment was probably not the smartest thing they could do.

They reached the Hale house before the other pack and Isaac was starting to feel uneasy about it.

"I don't know why we couldn't have the rest of the pack here." He said.

"Do you want them to think this was an ambush?" Peter said.

"Do you?"

Peter just smiled.

"What we want is for them to feel like we're on even terms, showing up with the rest of the pack does seem like we're planning something." Derek said.

"They're probably coming out here ready for a fight though." Erica said, folding her arms.

"It's not like we can expect anything else. I don't trust them either." Isaac said. They might not even show up at all." He muttered.

"You didn't think we'd turn down your invitation did you?" They all spun around to face the tree line as a young woman emerged.

Following close behind her were the other three members of her pack. Derek stepped ahead of his pack members, who all stood cautiously at his flank.

"We were hoping you'd show up." Derek said.

"I suppose we're due for some introductions?" The alpha asked, flashing her red eyes at Derek in the subtle glow of the twilight.

He returned her gesture and she gave him a small nod, looking him up and down.

"My name is Derek Hale, this is Peter, Isaac and Erica." He said, motioning to them with his head.

"Are they all you have or are our even numbers just for my benefit?" she asked.

"There are three others." He replied.

"Six if you include his human brood." Peter said and Derek shot him an 'I will kill you if you breathe wrong' glare.

"A wolf that runs with humans, I assume they all carry some sort of emotional significance." She said.

"Well…" Peter started but Derek cut him off with a growl.

"Something like that." He answered.

She just gave him a sly smile. "I suppose that'll do. I'm Katherine. That's Daisy, Aiden and Ethan."

"What's your business in Beacon Hills?" Derek said.

"I like that you're straight to the point." She said with a smile.

She was quite beautiful. She had wavy brown hair that stopped just past her shoulders and when she wasn't bearing her red alpha eyes they were a deep chocolate colour. Her lips were painted crimson not dissimilar to Erica's and she stood at a similar height to Derek, granted she was wearing shoes that added a few extra inches.

"This town has been my home for many years, I don't want anyone to come in expecting that they can take what they want from it." He said.

"Yes, I've heard of the packs that used to live here, not for a while though we thought. I can see that you have two young members behind you so I'd say you're quite a fresh group." Katherine said with a look to Isaac and Erica.

"Most of them, yes."

"We are the same. Daisy is our youngest, only a few months." She was a young looking girl, dressed only in a light summer dress despite the harsh chill of the wind, her dirty blonde hair pulled back in a braid. "These two we poached from a rival pack back in Wyoming." She pointed to Aiden and Ethan, clearly twins.

"You've come a fair way for a small town."

"We tend to roam; could be here a few weeks, could be a few months. No reason in particular." Katherine said.

"We don't want any trouble." Ethan said out of turn and Katherine gave him a look that shut him down in an instant.

"And we're not looking for it. I'm not saying that you can't stay, I'm saying that I don't want to have to force you to leave." Derek said.

"Well he's right." She looked back to Ethan before setting her sights on Derek. "We don't want trouble from you. We're not that kind of pack." She said. "We'll stay out of your way if you stay out of ours."

Isaac looked over to Erica who gave him a shrug in return.

"Then we understand each other." Derek said.

Katherine smiled. "Perfectly."

"Are you sure your newbie can control herself come the full moon?" Peter asked.

She turned to him and walked a little closer, Derek stepped aside, almost wishing that she would tear him a new one. "I see you aren't afraid to defy your alpha's authority."

Peter let out a laugh. "Oh he's not my alpha, he's my nephew. In fact, I used to _be _the alpha before the throat slashing incident."

She turned her head to look at Derek. "Strange choice to bring to a little meet and greet don't you think?"

"He would have been here whether it was behind me or hidden from sight. This is easier." He said.

She laughed. "Well, if anything else comes up we'll be sure to send you a line. It was nice meeting you Derek." Without turning her back until she reached the tree line, she backed off with the others until they were out of sight.

"Well that was less than eventful." Erica rolled her eyes. "Those twins were kind of hot though."

All three of the others turned to stare at her and she shrugged.

"What? They were."

"I have to agree with her…" They all raised their eyebrows at Peter. "On the lack of eventfulness that tonight brought with it. How easily it could have-"

"If you do one single thing to bring about a rivalry between our packs then I will-"

"You're all threat Derek, the only throat I've ever seen you rip out is mine."

"Then you should know that I have no hesitation in doing it again." He said through gritted teeth.

Peter gave him a 'fair enough' face and they began the walk back to the road.

"I don't want any of you engaging with them for any length of time without talking to me. We may have exchanged friendly words but that doesn't mean that they're going to keep them. We just have to see how the full moon changes things." Derek said.

"Of course." Erica rolled her eyes.

Isaac didn't say much and Derek had noticed it too. He didn't say anything about it but Isaac was never normally _this _quiet. They didn't take long to reach the road where Derek had parked the Camaro. He had driven there alone, the others all meeting him on foot.

"Does anyone need a ride?" He asked.

"Well if you're offering…" Peter started.

"_Not_ you." Derek said.

"Right, I suppose I will see you the next time we encounter trouble." He grinned and Derek just stared him down until he was a decent distance away from them, walking north along the road.

"Erica?" He asked.

"So long as that psycho's gone then no, I'm just going to take a walk back home." She said.

She began walking in the opposite direction to Peter and Derek turned his attention to Isaac.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Maybe you should pick her up though." He looked back at Erica. "I mean seeing as you don't trust this pack and all."

"I don't want to force her into the car." Derek shrugged and Isaac sighed.

"Erica! Get back here." He yelled.

She turned around with a hand on her hip. "I don't need a lift."

"Get in." Derek said, already climbing in the driver's side door.

"Fine," she said, storming back. "But I call shot gun."

They dropped her off at her place, not too far from the loft. She didn't thank Derek for the ride. Isaac climbed into the front seat from his place in the back and Derek pulled out of the drive and back onto the road.

"Did you want to go to Scott's?" He asked.

Isaac shook his head. "No… I think I'll just crash at – at your place."

"Were you going to call it home or something like that?" Derek asked.

"Maybe, habit I guess." He mumbled.

"_Is_ it your home?"

"Maybe, I don't know, I haven't really decided yet."

"Good answer."

They drove in silence the rest of the way and when they got to the loft each of them disappeared into their respectful bedrooms for a while.

"So how'd it all go?" Stiles asked and Derek raised an eyebrow at him.

"How is it that I missed your heap of junk jeep outside?"

"Why, did I scare you?" Stiles asked hopefully.

"Just because I didn't see the jeep doesn't mean I didn't smell you."

"Right… so go on, tell me." Derek gave him the basic run-down of the events of the night and his reaction was the same as the others; basically disappointment.

"Why do you all seem to be looking for a fight?" He asked, taking off his shoes and belt.

"We're not, it just seems like you worried for nothing. You big worry-wolf."

Derek narrowed his eyes. "You know if I had a choice between that and the other one that you call me, I would actually beg you for the other one."

"Aw, it's alright, you're still my sour wolf." Stiles teased.

Derek shook his head. "Did you pick a movie then?"

"I was waiting for you. You always hate the ones I pick anyway." Stiles said, making room for Derek to snuggle in beside him.

Not that Derek snuggles.

"That's because you always pick things that annoy me."

"How is Wolf Creek annoying?"

"You always pick things you can make a joke out of."

"That's because it's funny."

"No Stiles, it's not."

"Oh come on, I can see that smile." He poked Derek in the belly.

His annoyance was off the charts but somehow he was inches away from laughing at just how frustrating Stiles could be. He was right, the smile was teasing his lips and it took all of his strength not to show off a large toothy grin.

"One of these days-"

"Yeah, yeah, just pick something why don't you." Stiles said, poking him again. "Ooh, what about Moon? _Ouch!_" He yelped as Derek smacked him in the chest.

Hours later and they had finished a movie, one completely unrelated to anything wolf-like, and Stiles was wandering downstairs for a glass of water. When he hit the last few steps he saw Isaac sitting in the kitchen just sort of staring into a glass.

He walked over to him and sat in the chair beside him. He looked at him for a long moment with no response before Isaac finally said anything.

"Hey Stiles can I ask you a question?" He said.

"Uh, yeah sure, what's up?"

"You and Derek…" He started cautiously. "When you – I mean – you guys… uh…" He twisted his hand around in mid-air, trying to get his words out but they just didn't seem to want to fall from his lips. "When the two of you-"

"Are you… trying to ask me about my sex life?" Stiles asked.

"Kind of, yeah." Isaac said quietly.

"Me? You're asking me? The guy who was king of the virgins like four months ago?"

"Yes, you."

"Well okay then, just so we're both clear."

"You and Derek slept together before you really got together right?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah. I wouldn't really call it sleeping together though, it was more he would come over and then leave right after." Stiles nodded to himself.

"Well that worked for you right?"

"Seems to have yeah. Why? Are you worried that it's not going to work out that way for you and Scott? I guess some people would think that we rushed into things by – _you know_ – before we had an actual relationship but isn't that how most things start? You get a little cosier and then-"

"I'm not worried about that, actually it's kind of the other way around…" He said, looking up as Stiles pieced things together for himself.

"What? I thought the two of you had been going at it since like, since I was attacked. I heard about the hospital hand-job by the way. Nice to know that you were so worried you'd take some time out to jerk off, you jerk off." Stiles said, slightly bitterly but Isaac smiled at his attempt at making him laugh.

"You had just pulled through, it was more of a … celebratory… hand-job." He said.

"Well anyway, haven't you guys been together since then?"

"Yes… but not – I mean we haven't done… that." He said and Stiles' eyes grew wide.

"Oh… _oh_." He said.

As he tried to think of something to say back to him Isaac couldn't help thinking back to the night before.

_"Well, we have waited, maybe now is the right time." Scott said._

_"Yeah?" Isaac had asked._

_"Yeah."_

_Then he had kissed him, eager and hungry. His heart pounded frantically because he had been waiting for Scott to say those words for months._

_They stripped one another down until there was nothing left to take off and continued their frenzied assault on one another until the crucible moment came._

_Scott pulled his lips away, looking down at Isaac and panting._

_"Do you… I mean do you want to or do you want me to…" He asked and it took Isaac a minute to make his brain function and understand what he was saying._

_"Oh… uh, you – you can if you want."_

_"Are you sure?" He asked._

_"Yeah, no, totally sure." He nodded._

_"Okay." He moved off him and to the drawer by his bed, taking out a condom before turning back. "Uh… are we going to, I mean, do we have to…"_

_Isaac knew what he was trying to ask and he didn't really know what to say. "Well I guess you'll… I mean I could…" He swallowed, not knowing exactly how they were going to do it._

_Scott was kneeling between his legs, staring down at him as if he was waiting for Isaac to give him further guidance. He wasn't a virgin but this was a little different to being with Allison and as nervous as he was it felt like his first time._

_"I'll – I'll just…" Isaac said, rolling onto his stomach and closing his eyes tightly, the awkwardness in the air not lost on him._

_Scott sighed, "Sorry, I just – It's too late now." He rolled onto his back and Isaac waited for a while before turning to face him._

_"It's okay, I'm a little worried about tomorrow anyway so maybe we should just… sleep."_

_"Yeah, that sounds good." Scott turned his back to Isaac and waited for him to cuddle up into him._

_Neither of them said another word despite being awake for hours after._

"Seriously? You still haven't – like at all?" Stiles asked.

"How is there a half way for that? No, not at all." He said.

Stiles just bobbed his head a bit. "You've already said that you love him and stuff haven't you? I know I've heard you say that."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You can't say I love you before sex, it's just like, the rules or something."

"Since when are you the expert?" Isaac raised an eyebrow.

"Since I just had sex like a half hour ago."

"Point taken." There was a silence between them for a moment before Isaac sighed. "Was it awkward for you at all?"

Stiles knew the answer that Isaac was looking for but he had been around the block enough to know that lying to a werewolf didn't do anyone any favours. "Not really." He said, much to Isaac's disappointment. "That could just be because we didn't wait for anything, it kind of just… happened."

"Yeah… well it's not like that'll work for me." He sighed.

"Listen Isaac, I have no answers, for anything. I mean seriously I should not be giving you advice and you're clearly just as stupid as I am for coming to me but all I'm going to say is that it doesn't have to be this hard. Just do it." He said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I am right, and you know why?"

"Because you just had sex like a half hour ago?" He said, mocking him slightly.

"No, I'm right because you'll realise once you've done it that you were worrying about it for nothing." Stiles said. "I mean I know you've done it before but this is different because… well… it's different."

"Stiles…" He looked up at him and shook his head. "I'm a virgin."

Stiles almost choked on air and just gave him an incredulous stare. "What? No, no you're not."

"Yeah, I am. I'm not saying I've never hooked up with anyone – because I most definitely have – but I've never done _that_." He shrugged. "Never really had anyone that I wanted to do it with before."

"I don't understand that because I was pretty much not caring about who it was I just wanted to do it." Stiles said and Isaac laughed.

"You know what Stiles? That did make me feel better."

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up." He said, hopping down off his stool before heading to the sink to fill a glass with water. "I'll see you tomorrow for school." He said.

"Night Stiles."

He waved a hand in response and despite what you would think about getting advice from Stiles it was true, he did feel better, slightly. He wasn't going to let one little hiccup stop him and Scott from being together, no way in hell.

Stiles headed up the stairs and into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him. "Well, I just had a pretty in depth conversation with Isaac about-"

"I know Stiles, I heard you." Derek said, lying under the sheets with a hand behind his head and his eyes closed.

"You – you what? Were you spying on me Derek?" He said with a smile.

"It wouldn't be hard, you speak like everyone around you is half deaf." He grumbled.

"Don't pretend you want to go to sleep, I know you're nocturnal."

Derek's eyes shot open. "Really? Really Stiles?"

He grinned, putting his glass down and climbing in beside him. "What? What did I say?"

"You know one of these days-"

"Yeah, I know, now shut up and kiss me." And that's exactly what he did.


	10. Chapter 10

The next day was the full moon. It would be rising in the sky just before the sun had finished setting and they were all on alert. Unfortunately that meant that they would be alert at school.

Isaac and Boyd walked slowly up the steps as he filled him in on the events of the night before.

"I thought Erica would have told you." Isaac said.

"Yeah she did, but you know what she's like. The things she said were the things that I really didn't need to know." He smiled.

"She said the two guys were hot didn't she?"

"Sort of, it was more how hot it would be if – you know what I don't even want to repeat it." He chuckled.

"She's interesting anyway."

"You're not wrong, so these guys were twins?" Boyd asked.

Isaac nodded. "Yeah, identical. The other one was sort of smaller; she can't have been much older than us. You see this is where Erica would ask if she was cute or not."

"Don't expect me to do that." Isaac laughed. "So what do you think? Do they look like a threat?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, they didn't seem like they wanted to cause trouble but I don't think I trust them. No, I definitely don't trust them."

"Fair call." Boyd said.

"So what have you got first up?"

"Study hall."

"Lucky you."

"Not really, I'd rather have something actually productive to do." Isaac looked at him in confusion and Boyd shrugged. "Erica has it at the same time."

"Say no more. You guys are pretty good friends-"

"How many more people am I going to have to convince that she's just my best friend?" He asked.

"Alright, sorry. Just trying to make-" He stopped mid-sentence as his nose tingled with a familiar scent.

"Isaac? You alright?" Boyd asked, stopping beside him.

"It's them, they're here." He whispered, looking around trying to find them.

"Who? The other pack?" Boyd asked and Isaac nodded. "There's Scott."

Isaac's eyes darted to Scott, inside at his locker and they began walking towards him, Isaac searching for the newcomers. Scott saw them as they stormed closer and knew that something was going on.

"Hey… is everything okay?" He asked.

"He thinks that new pack is here." Boyd said.

"I don't think, I know. Can't you smell that?"

"Actually I thought it was just you guys but now that you mention it…" Scott said.

"There." Isaac whispered as he thought he saw one of the twins walk past at the end of the hall.

He headed off quickly, following the person he had just seen and Scott slammed his locker shut. "Isaac? _Isaac_!" He hissed and Boyd followed, looking around to see if he could sense who Isaac was looking for.

He knew someone was there but just not where they were.

They stopped just outside the front office and followed Isaac's gaze through the shuttered windows. Inside were two six foot tall boys, identical in looks and definitely one of them.

"So that's them huh?" Boyd said under his breath for only the other two to hear.

Isaac nodded.

As they watched them talking to one of the office aids a short blonde girl opened the door and headed out. Isaac recognised her as Daisy, the third beta. He nudged Scott in her direction and the three of them turned to look at her.

As if feeling their stares she looked up with big doe eyes, staring blankly as she passed them by.

"Well she looked a little less dangerous than those two." Boyd said.

"What are they doing here?" Scott asked.

Isaac shook his head. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

"Isaac, don't, you know what Derek said." Boyd hissed but he was already stepping away from the wall in the direction of the office.

He only got three steps because in his haste he hadn't seen the girl walking in from the other direction. He walked square into her and damn near stole her balance. She would have taken a tumble if he hadn't caught her by the arm.

"Crap, sorry." He mumbled.

"No, no, it's okay – _Isaac_?" Until then he hadn't really paid much attention to her face but the sound of her voice saying his name stirred something familiar inside him. "Isaac Lahey?" She looked up with a warm grin and big blue eyes, ones that he could never forget.

"Cassie?" He said, returning her smile as she looped her arms around his neck.

Boyd and Scott just looked at one another in confusion as the girl named Cassie just laughed, pulling out of their embrace to put her arms on his shoulders and look up at him.

"God, you look so different!" She said, beaming.

"You look, mostly the same." He said.

"Hey, it's been three years I should look slightly better don't you think?"

"I thought you went off to college." He said.

"I did, I'm actually only back to do some research." She said.

"At Beacon Hills High?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up." She laughed.

"I'm going to head to class, the bell's about to go." Boyd said and Scott nodded, walking over to Isaac and standing by his side, almost hoping to break up the little reunion.

"We have to catch up sometime, I'm only here for a week but I'll be back after thanksgiving when I finally find a place to stay long term." She said.

"Yeah, yeah that would be great." Isaac said as Scott 'accidentally on purpose' nudged him with his elbow. "Oh, Cassie, this is my friend Scott, Scott this is Cassie."

"Hi Scott." She said, looking at him for a second before turning back to Isaac.

"So how do you know each other?" Scott asked.

Isaac went to say something but Cassie beat him to it. "Isaac used to live with my foster family way back, how old were you? Eleven?"

"Uh… yeah, about that."

"You lived in a foster home?" Scott asked.

"Oh, crap! I'm sorry, I just assumed he knew about that." Cassie said, looking a little guilty.

"It's okay, it's not that big a deal, it was only a couple of months anyway." Isaac shrugged but he knew Scott would ask him about it later.

"Still, it was enough." She gave him a warm smile. "Anyway, I better get going, I just came to see one of my old teachers. I've got an appointment at the real estate place."

"Sure, it was great to see you." Isaac said.

"You too, I'll give you a call if you want to go out to coffee or something."

"Yeah okay." He said and she gave him a little wave, turning on her heels and walking away, glancing back once with her lips pulled into a smile.

He just stared after her for a while until Scott coughed beside him. Isaac turned to look at him.

"Never heard of her before." He said.

"I haven't told anyone about her before." Isaac shrugged.

Scott felt a little stab of jealousy. "Why not?"

"I don't know, never really came up. Look, I'm sorry I never told you about the whole foster family thing. It wasn't for long and it was just after my mom left so things were a bit… out of it." Scott shrugged and gave him a small smile. "Come on, let's just get to class."

He gave him a nudge with his hip and Scott just shook his head. After a few seconds he smirked and snorted a little.

"You were staring at her ass." He muttered.

Isaac scoffed. "Was not."

During his classes that day, despite his vow to stay focussed, Scott couldn't help thinking about Isaac and his old friend, if that was really all she was. The worst part was that he was annoyed at actually feeling jealous of someone that he knew Isaac wasn't interested in.

Mostly knew. _Damn it_.

He didn't like that feeling of jealousy; he felt it enough when he was with Allison and he didn't much want to feel it again. There was just something about the way Isaac introduced him as 'my friend Scott' that had him thinking.

_Is that how he feels because I haven't told my mom? Like I'm trying to keep a secret?_ He thought about it and sighed, knowing that he probably didn't even think about it but it must be how it feels to know that Scott still hasn't told his mom, and he didn't like it.

It made him feel strange, almost upset, and he knew that was completely irrational because Isaac loved him, really and truly loved him.

So he didn't get much productive work done that day. He didn't much think about the arrival of the new pack to their school either; somehow it didn't seem quite as important. He knew that it should be but he just couldn't focus on it.

Isaac probably was, he probably spent his free period searching for them on the grounds. Or he was thinking of that girl. Scott scolded himself for being so jealous; he didn't even know why it was hitting him like this. Maybe it was the awkwardness of the other night. He didn't want it to be that way; he had wanted it to go much better than that.

_Well I'm not just going to sit around and wait for it to magically happen_, he thought to himself. When he heard the final bell he rushed out of class, much to the annoyance of Stiles who had been trying to talk to him for the whole last period.

_Isaac – _

I hadn't seen the twins much all day and despite my best efforts to track them or the girl down, Boyd kept me in check and sort of refused to let me out of his sight. It was actually really annoying.

"You can just tell Derek when you get back there, don't do anything stupid." He said as we walked out after the final bell.

I shook my head. "What did you think I was going to do?"

"I don't know, that's why I don't think you should do it." He said.

"All I want to do is ask them what they're doing here."

"They looked about our age, maybe they're just going to school, you know, like us."

"Yeah maybe." I muttered. "At least we can keep an eye on them if they're here."

"There you go." He smiled and I just rolled my eyes. "Besides, if you were going to talk to anyone it should probably be the girl; she just seems less likely to rip your head off."

"Where's the fun in that?" I grinned.

"You've been spending too much time with Derek." I scoffed.

"Please, Derek's a puppy dog now that he has Stiles around."

"Is that so?" We both spun around to see Derek standing behind us, leather-clad arms folded over his chest.

"Oh hey… Derek." I said, a little sheepishly. "You uh – you been here long?"

I fought back the urge to punch Boyd in the face for holding back his laughter as Derek stared me down stoically.

"Yeah." He said. "What did I say about this pack?"

"Derek-"

"I said to stay away from them."

"Okay, it's not my fault this time, they kind of came to us." I said.

"Well don't make it worse, if they're a problem, we'll deal with it." I was about to argue with him when my phone buzzed.

I let out a huff as I pulled it out of my pocket and swiped across the text message.

**Mine 2night instead of Derek's? Got your fave**

I smiled. "Well I would love to stay and debate this but I've got to go."

"Hot date?" Boyd said with a grin.

"When did you become such a smart-ass?" I asked.

"Always have been." He shrugged.

I shook my head and was about to send a message back to Scott when Derek grabbed me by the shirt and let out a growl. "Hey!"

"Easy Derek!" I said.

"I don't want you going after them. If they come to you, I want to hear about it." He said and I swallowed, knowing that this was something he was taking pretty damn seriously.

"Okay!" I said, really, _really_ wishing that he would let go.

I think he could see that he had convinced me well enough to let me go as he shoved me back. Boyd was just looking at the two of us with raised eyebrows and Derek just gave me a nod.

"Well… I've got study to do so… I'll see you tomorrow." Boyd said, giving me a smile as he headed off.

"Like I said, I have somewhere to be too." I said, turning my eyes away from Derek.

I don't think he meant to get so angry; this whole pack thing is just grinding him. Either way I turned away from him and walked away, heading straight to Scott's as I sent him a text.

**_Already on my way_**

It didn't take long to get there, I've figured out the shortcuts to Scott's place already. I might have to cut across a few back yards but I'm quick enough that nobody notices, usually. When I got there I knocked on the door but he was already pulling it open with that big lopsided grin.

"You rang?" I said.

"Shut up." He said with a laugh.

As I stepped through the door he grabbed me in the same way that Derek had done, only this time it had a different outcome. He pulled me into him lips first before his hands slipped down to hold tightly to my hips. Of course I responded by taking him by the sides of his face and opening up my lips to let him in.

When I finally pulled back, panting and damn it if I wasn't already turned on, I tilted the sides of my lips up into a smile.

"What the hell was that for?" I asked.

"Saying you didn't like it?" He said with a smirk and a hint of arrogance that I love.

"Not in the slightest, aren't you worried about your mom seeing us though?"

"She's working late… it's just the two of us."

"Oh?" I said hopefully, grinning and leaning in to kiss him softly, savouring the taste of his lips.

"Look, I was thinking…" He started and I desperately wanted to tell him not to ruin this moment but he looked like he really wanted to say this thing. "I'm going to tell her, tomorrow, or this weekend. Soon, really soon." He said, taking me by surprise.

"Scott you know I don't-"

"I know… just hearing you introduce me to that girl today as 'your friend' made me wonder if that's what it feels like for you when we're around my mom." He said.

"I never meant for that to go that way, I just didn't have time to tell her anything real or-"

"Oh, I know, and I don't care about that, I just don't want to make you feel like… like I'm ashamed or anything." I just gave him a smile and stroked his cheek with my thumb before he smirked again. "Besides, I know you're all mine." His hands gave a few soft tugs on my hips and I laughed.

"Do you now?" I asked.

He kissed me again, but only for a second before his lips were travelling along my jaw and to my ear to where his hot breath sent a shiver running through me. He ran his tongue along the outside before letting his teeth scrape my ear lobe.

"Do you want to tell me I'm wrong?" He said in a husky voice that made me bite down hard on my lip.

"Well I don't _want_ to…" I said and he chuckled, biting down and sucking gently. "… but if you're going to do that then you might want to change locations." I said.

He growled low in his throat and grabbed me roughly by the wrist, dragging me away and up the stairs. I couldn't help but think about the awkwardness of the other night and god do I wish I hadn't. It started to kill my mood as I forced myself to think of anything else.

The second we hit his room he had me pressed up against the wall, rocking his hips into mine and his breath in my ear again. "Tell me that you're mine." He cooed, his hand sliding under my shirt and reaching up to gently tweak my nipple.

"What's gotten into you?" I whispered.

He growled, grabbing my shirt and pulling it roughly over my head, tossing it away. He took hold of my wrists again and pinned them to the wall behind me. "Tell me."

I could see in his eyes that he was slightly vulnerable but there was a hunger that made me want to see where this side of him wanted to go. "I'm yours." I breathed.

He let his hands run down my chest, his eyes ravishing me as it rose and fell with my heavy breaths. "Good." He said as he grabbed me and threw me down onto the bed.

Climbing over me he ran his tongue from my navel to my chin leaving a hot trail with so much unexplored. His teeth nipped at my neck as my hands started to pull his shirt up. He pulled back to tear it off, turning back to me and going straight for my jeans.

"Hey, hey… you're in a rush don't you think." I said.

I'm not an idiot, I still helped him unbuckle my jeans and take them off as he gave me that impossibly sexy smirk.

"Maybe I just want you out of your clothes so that I can enjoy more of you for longer." He said.

I've seriously never seen him like this. The more I think about it the more I think he was more jealous than he was willing to let on earlier, maybe I should meet pretty old friends more often.

"Not going to say no to that." I said, grabbing the back of his head to pull him back for a kiss.

He held his lips barely above mine, flicking out his tongue to taste my top lip. I let my own pass between my lips and stroke the side of his. He lowered his mouth to meet mine, kissing me as deeply as he could manage as his hand reaching down and rubbing back and forth on the bulge in my boxer shorts.

I groaned against his lips as he squeezed a little harder. "_Uhn… I am so yours Scott_…" I whispered, our breath passing between us as I watched his eyes glow yellow.

His fingers locked around the waistband of my boxers and slowly – torturously – pulled them down over my legs and off my ankles until I was lying naked on his bed, my cock hard and leaning back against my stomach. He knelt above me on his hands and knees, leaning in to slide the tip of his tongue from the base of my throbbing member to the head.

I let out a sharp intake of breath and grabbed the sheets as I felt his lips give a long pull and his tongue skimmed over my slit. Slowly he lowered his lips and hollowed out his cheeks until his lips were reaching the base. He urged himself down again and his throat felt more than amazing around me.

He groaned and the rumbling feeling made me let out a high pitched sound that I knew he was smiling about. Scott likes nothing more than hearing me moan and whisper his name so I take my every chance to get him even hotter under his collar.

"_Fuck… oh god Scott_…" I said with a moan.

To my surprise he pulled away and looked up at me, his eyes back to that gorgeous brown as he smiled, his lips red and glistening from his saliva.

"Don't tell me you're stopping." I said, sincerely hoping that he wasn't.

"God no." He said, taking me in his hand and squeezing slightly, twisting a little at the tip.

My eyes rolled back into my head and I lay back, the second my eyes were closed his hands left me.

"Hey… that's stopping…" I said.

He leant over to the side of the bed, his heartbeat pounding ridiculously loud in his chest, the sound of it filling my ears. He reached down and into his backpack, pulling out a cylindrical bottle, his eyes flicking back to me a little nervously.

Don't think about last time… _crap._

"Scott I-"

He bent down to silence me with his mouth, ravenous and insatiable. "Don't say anything, just let me keep going." He breathed.

I was in no condition to stop him so I just bit my lip as he opened the bottle, spreading some onto his fingers before wrapping them around my cock one more time. The way his hand slipped easily up and down was like running your fingers through velvet and my heart started rattling in my chest as he switched hands and cupped my balls in his hand, his fingers pressing gently just underneath.

Trying to take in everything that I was feeling was impossible, so many parts of me were burning hot and my feet were tingling at the sensation. The more he touched me the more I wanted all of him and I needed all of him. I felt my body starting to change, my claws breaking holes in the sheets and fangs extending in my open mouth as that need began to overwhelm me.

He let go only briefly to unbuckle his own jeans and tear them off faster than I've ever seen him do it. He poured some more from the bottle onto his fingers and spread my legs apart further, positioning himself between them and putting his fingers back on me, sliding them closer to my entrance until the soft tip of one finger was circling me in a way that had me gasping for air.

I think I said his name, I think I mumbled a whole bunch of words and sounds that made no sense and it made Scott's already increasing confidence grow.

"If you want me to stop just tell me." He said.

"Don't… don't stop Scott keep going…" I said quickly, my eyes still closed as I felt him force one finger inside me slowly, pushing it in and out a small way. "Like that… yeah like that…" I moaned.

The further he went the more I fought down the urge to push back against him and when he curled the end of his finger I let out a yelp that was more animal than man. I reached up to put my hand on his shoulder and gripped him tightly.

He winced a little as my claws nicked his skin but his glowing eyes told me that he didn't mind, I think he may have even enjoyed it. As he pulled back he slipped another finger inside and I groaned even louder.

"You like that?" He whispered, the sound of his voice ringing in my sensitive ears making it even better.

I nodded and pushed myself against him a little and he chuckled to himself haughtily before scissoring slowly. It was slightly painful but with one more curl of his finger it was easy to forget.

"Come on Scott… I want you… _I want you now_." I said, pleading with him to give me more.

I wanted to feel him filling me, I wanted him to be as much a part of me physically as he was emotionally but it was more than just a want, it was a fiery need that burned in every fibre of my being.

He pulled his fingers out of me taking from beside the bottle a condom and opening it to slip it on, he was already leaking pre-come, clearly enjoying himself just as much as I had been.

He leant in to kiss me, his body still between my legs and I put my hands on his sides as I looked up at him. "I love you." I whispered.

He smiled as he slicked himself up a little more and lined himself up with my body and rubbing himself against my entrance. He put a reassuring hand on my hip before he pushed the head of his throbbing cock into me.

I let out a cry mixed between pleasure and pain as he waited for my body to adjust to his, not letting me pull him in any further.

"I don't want to hurt you." He said with a grin, kissing my neck gently.

"Screw it, I'll heal – just fuck me, _please_." I said, fans still descended and eyes glowing.

He groaned, trying to use his self-control but we both know that he has none to speak of. He pushed himself inside me, slowly at first, warming me up. I growled at the sting but as he started moving his hips faster it stopped being painful and the angle of his hips was hitting the perfect spot.

His brow furrowed as he thrust his throbbing member inside me harder, the pressure on my hot-spot becoming even greater and more exhilarating with every pump of his hips. The sound of his laboured grunts as the sweat on his forehead began to bead just made me want more of him, everything that he had. I pushed back with him and he moaned with pleasure.

A trickle of blood ran down my finger and over his hip because of my claws. He took his hand off my hip and took my thigh, lifting it higher and making it easier for him to force himself deeper inside me.

I could feel my stomach tightening and my growling turned into a low crooning. "Scott… oh… _Scott I'm almost_…" I breathed.

I didn't have time to finish the sentence before I was exploding in a white hot eruption over both of our chests. His voice became a strangled moan as my body tightened around him and as I was still in the throes of my orgasm I felt him let go, holding tightly enough on my leg to bruise.

The waves washed through him and I watched the expression on his face change to one of impossible pleasure and relief. He exhaled heavily as he rested his body on mine. I kissed him, any part of him that I could get my lips on and he smiled groggily.

"I didn't think that I could love you any more than I did but oh my god…" He panted.

"And you wanted to wait…" I teased. "We could have been doing this all summer."

"Well we're just going to have to make up for it now aren't we?" He said, kissing me but not moving his body away.

"We most definitely are."


	11. Chapter 11

Stiles sat at home in the chair at his desk, studying like he knew he should even though he always gets straight A's anyway. He looked at the time on his phone and sighed, it was almost six and his dad wasn't home, not to mention it was the full moon so Derek and all the rest of them were banding together because hey, some pack full of strangers decided to crash in their not-so-sleepy little town.

As he stared at his phone he bit back the urge to send Derek a text or call him. He hadn't seen him the night before either, clearly this whole 'new alpha in town' thing has him rattled. Stiles knew it couldn't be easy for him to deal with and that the reason he's been a little colder the last few days is because there's already been too much happening in the last few months and he doesn't want to lose a member of his pack.

Stiles is just waiting for him to cut him off even further. He did it once after he almost lost him so who's to say he won't do it again now? It's a coping mechanism, he knows that. It's a way for Derek to stop himself and the people he cares about getting hurt. He has this problem where he blames himself for all the problems that surround him.

Sometimes Stiles wishes that he would just blame Peter for long enough to kill him because he does far more damage than he does good. He never will though. Peter may be a jackass, a sarcastic and narcissistic liar who killed his sister – but he is the last part of his family left.

Stiles would have loved to meet Derek at sixteen, young and happy with a family still around him and before everything happened with Paige. He knew that he would have been so different. Sometimes he wonders if that Derek will ever come back.

Now he wasn't focussing on anything productive so he threw down his pen and stretched himself out in his chair. He looked at the clock; **6:05**.

_God damn it_, he thought. He was never going to get anything done now. He told himself that he wouldn't interfere tonight because of the full moon and the new pack and it would make Derek feel better if he was just at home having a quiet one but the silence was starting to get irritating.

He decided to go for a shower because there was nothing better to do and he was waiting to hear from his dad. He didn't want to cook anything if he wasn't going to be home or if he was picking something up on the way. Then again, his cooking was basically reheating whatever he could find.

He checked his phone again, knowing that if he had got a message he would have heard it but still swiping the screen anyway. He threw it down onto his bed and headed into the bathroom, quickly stripping down and turning on the hot water. The weather was still warm for now, in a few months it would be getting a lot colder.

He took his time, knowing that after this all he had was study or TV and nothing sounded all that interesting to him. Well, one or two things did, and so he amused himself for a while with one of them. It didn't kill as much time as he had hoped it would.

When the room was too steamy to breathe he climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, giving himself a quick glance in the mirror. He had no idea what Derek saw in him. Sure, he had nice cheekbones and small dimples when he smiled but Derek had the body, the hair, the jawline, the everything that made a guy perfect. He knew that his scent had something to do with it but all he could smell now was soap and when he hasn't had a shower it's sweat. So he hasn't got a clue but his mantra begins with the line 'if it ain't broke'.

He cracked his neck from side to side as he walked into his bedroom.

"Easy there Stiles, maybe you should buy me dinner first." He leapt about a mile in the air when he saw Erica sitting back on his bed flicking through her phone.

"Holy – what is with you werewolves and breaking into my house to get into my bed?! I'm up to three now so who's going to be next? _Jackson?_" He said, slightly annoyed and holding his towel ridiculously tight.

She laughed. "Oh calm down, I'm just here to make sure you're safe."

"And who exactly said that I need to be protected?" He grunted, walking over to his dresser to look for some fresh clothes. "Would you get out so I can de-naked please?"

She chuckled again. "Just go back into the bathroom, you seemed to enjoy yourself when you were in there just before. Besides, I'm here to watch you remember." She winked and Stiles scoffed.

"That Derek's suggestion was it?"

"To protect you? Obviously."

"And he sent you?" He said, raising an eyebrow and not believing it for a second.

She shrugged. "He sent me to protect someone."

He rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. "I take it I'm not the only one who requires protection then?" He pulled on his shirt and tugged his jeans over his slightly damp legs.

"You and all the other humans." She called.

As he walked out he threw his towel onto the floor and realised that it was his phone that she was looking through. "Excuse me! Do you mind?" He swiped at the phone but her reflexes were too quick and she pulled away.

"Derek's such a sweetie when the two of you talk. It actually kind of makes me sick." She said with a twisted smile.

"You're crazy!" He muttered, snatching it away from her. "So how did you get landed with me?" He asked, shoving it into his pocket and away from her.

She shrugged. "I traded with Boyd."

"Who's he with?"

"Lydia."

"Lydia?"

"Yes Lydia, did I not say it clearly enough?" She said.

"Well I just thought that Jackson would be with her, or is he tied up in a basement again?" He snickered a little, finding the thought to be quite amusing.

"No, he's not."

"Something's going on with them, isn't there?" He asked and she just looked back at him. "Don't tell me there isn't because I may be a fragile human but I know when something is up."

"Whatever it is I don't know it, I just know that he's grumpier than usual and he volunteered to watch over Danny. He's staying at his place tonight."

"Derek asked someone to protect Danny?" Stiles wrinkled his nose, that didn't seem right.

"No, Jackson's all uppity about it because he saw him talking to one of the twins yesterday, and he didn't like it." She said.

"I don't like it either…" Stiles muttered.

He didn't know these new people and if any of the other unannounced supernatural beings are anything to go by then he didn't want to.

"Well Derek tried to talk him out of it but I think he saw that Jackson was genuinely worried so he just let him go. Now we just have to worry about Danny being ripped apart if Jackson can't keep control." She said with a smile.

"You know you're a little sick right?" He said. "So… where's Derek?"

She rolled her eyes. "How did I know you'd ask about him?"

"Shut up, if you knew I was going to annoy you then why did you trade for me?"

She didn't answer that. "He and Scott are out by the old house, I think they're mainly trying to keep Peter from doing something stupid."

Stiles scoffed, knowing perfectly well how difficult a task that could be. As he thought about it he realised that she hadn't mentioned Isaac.

"So, wait, where is-"

He was cut off by the sound of feet on the roof and a second later Isaac was climbing in through the window.

"Hey this is my gig, get your own." Erica said, still lounging about on the bed.

"What happened to you?" Stiles asked.

Isaac's hair was scruffy and full of dry grass pieces and one side of his shirt was torn a little and covered in dirt.

"I was given the pleasure of making sure nothing happens to Allison during the full moon." He grumbled. "I knocked on her window and told her the plan only for her to give me the old 'I can take care of myself' routine and shove me off the roof!" He growled, shaking his head and sitting down in the desk chair.

Erica smiled. "That's what you get when you steal someone's boyfriend."

"I didn't steal him… she gave him away and I just happened to be there-"

"On the rebound?" She grinned and he snarled.

"Hey, hey!" Stiles said, putting up his hands between them. "Can we get a little less werewolfitude in here? I don't really feel like dying, not this full moon anyway. So what made you come here?"

"I didn't want them to think that I wasn't doing my job so I couldn't go with them, Scott would kill me." He said a little begrudgingly. "So I just came here, I figured you'd be staying in but I thought Boyd would be here."

"They swapped… for some unknown reason." Stiles muttered.

Erica just gave Isaac a big grin and he shook his head. "I don't think I'll worry too much about Scott killing me, you should be worried about Derek taking you apart." He said.

"Oh come on, Stiles wouldn't let his little sourwolf do that." She said and Isaac raised his eyebrow over at Stiles who had folded his arms over his chest.

"Sourwolf?" He asked.

"Did you have to go through my text messages?" He spat at Erica and she nodded.

"You left it out, what else was I supposed to do in here?"

"There is a computer right there." He pointed to the desk behind Isaac.

"I don't really want to know what's on there Stiles." She said.

"I'd be more worried about the phone." Isaac said, grinning.

"Alright both of you shut up."

"I'm hungry, you guys want to get some food?" Isaac offered.

"That would be awesome, I'm starved." Erica hopped up and flicked back her hair.

They both looked to Stiles who sighed. "Fine, take out menus are in one of the kitchen drawers so you can both get the hell out of my room!"

The three of them ordered Chinese after Stiles got a text from his dad saying that he would just pick something up for himself on his way home later. Isaac complained for a while about Allison and her kicking him out and Erica mostly chanted sarcastic remarks at him.

Stiles noticed that Isaac was sweating a little, and it wasn't from the spice in the food, not to mention his deeply furrowed brow whenever he was quiet.

"Hey Isaac, you okay?" He asked as he shovelled another mouthful of rice down.

"What? Yeah I'm fine." He shrugged and Erica just snorted.

"It's the full moon Stiles, he's probably in heat." She laughed to herself.

"I'm not a bitch like you so don't say it like that." He snapped.

"Whoa, okay, did I just step into some werewolf thing here?" Stiles asked.

"Well duh, haven't you noticed that Derek gets randy every time the full moon rolls along?" She asked.

"He's basically always like that." He smirked and she rolled her eyes.

"Well then more so." She said, narrowing her eyes.

Stiles shrugged, "Yeah, I guess, mostly just more – you know what I don't really want to talk about my sex life with either of you… no more than I already have." He looked over at Isaac who looked like he wanted to avoid this conversation.

"Well that's why, it's just a wolf thing." She shrugged.

"What? Getting super-hot because of a big silver ball in the sky?"

This time both of them narrowed their eyes at him. "Hey, I never said that's what my deal was." Isaac said. "Can't talk for you though." He nodded to Erica.

She scoffed, "Please, I can smell it on you." She said in a seductive voice, leaning in to nip at his ear to which he snarled. "I know, I know, property of _Scott_. How about you?" She looked over at Stiles with a wink and he smiled as he shook his head.

"Only if you have a death wish." He said.

"Well phrased." They all spun to see Derek walking in from the other room.

"Seriously… knocking…" Stiles muttered.

Erica looked slightly wary but Derek just gave her a glare before he placed a hot, open mouthed kiss on Stiles' lips. A little taken aback he dropped his fork – he never was any good with chopsticks – and kissed him back.

"That's my cue to go I think." Isaac said, standing up and wrapping up his empty container. "I take it Scott's at home?"

"Unless he's waiting for you in your bed… you know, all naked and ready for you to show him a good time." Erica said with a smile and Stiles groaned.

"Can you not put that image in my head like, ever again please?"

Isaac smirked. "Yeah Erica, shut up."

"Why are you here and not out making sure Peter doesn't do anything… Peter-like?" She asked, standing up too.

"He left for the night, headed into the city." Derek said.

"Why would he go to the city?" Stiles asked.

Derek shrugged. "Full moon."

"Oh so Uncle-Alpha has moon fever too." Erica said.

"Would you stop with that?" Isaac said. "Is Scott at home?"

"Hey, you're the one who has the problem admitting it." She said.

"He's home but my real question is what the hell are you all doing here? And where is Boyd?" Derek asked, a little angry.

"We traded." Erica said.

"And Allison can protect herself." Isaac said with a little bit of resentment.

"Why do I even bother with the two of you? Leave, now." Derek growled.

He seemed pretty angry to Stiles and the others seemed to feel the same vibe.

"Look, I wouldn't have-" Isaac started.

"I said leave." Derek said again.

"Well I guess this little party is over." Erica said, getting up to leave and giving Derek a wide berth.

Derek made long strides over to her and grabbed her by the throat, pinning her against the wall and knocking a picture in its frame to the floor, smashing the glass. Her hands clawed at his, trying to pull him away and both Isaac and Stiles recoiled at the sudden movements.

"Next time I give you a job I want you to do it; don't go second guessing or trading. If I ask you to do it then do it!" He snarled.

She panted, closing her eyes tight as Derek's angry breath fanned her face. "Okay!" She whined.

"You want to fight back that's fine, but be smart about it and don't do it on a full moon." He gave her one last squeeze before letting her drop to the floor.

She clutched at her throat and looked up at him as she scrambled to her feet. She said nothing to him, she just gave him a look and tried to avoid his eyes.

"We should go." Isaac said slowly.

He reached out to Erica, taking her hand and pulling her to the front door. She looked back almost apologetically to Derek, the alpha's verbal thrashing enough to send shockwaves through her, scaring her wolf into submission.

As Derek watched them leave Stiles walked over to the fallen picture. He picked it up and sighed. The glass was shattered and the frame was broken in the corner. Derek walked over to him and felt a little guilty as he stared down at the picture.

Stiles was probably no more than seven, grinning wildly and in the arms of his mother who had her lips pressed against his cheek. He brushed his thumb over her image and his lips twitched a little.

"I'm sorry." Derek said quietly.

Stiles shrugged, "It's alright, it's just a picture frame."

"It's not about the frame."

"It's fine Derek, we can replace it." Stiles put the picture on the bench and looked down at the broken glass.

"I'll get it." Derek said, using his hands to gather it up, guilty for letting his anger shine through.

Stiles watched as he collected the glass off the floor sheepishly and pour it into the bin. He put his hand on his arm to stop his and Derek turned to face him.

"Seriously Derek, it's the full moon, I don't blame you for acting a little crazy-alpha. Plus your jealousy is kind of hot." He said, trying to break the mood that he could see creeping onto Derek's features.

"I'm not jealous of _Erica_." He said, huffing out her name like it was a struggle for him.

"No, you're jealous of me being friends with Erica."

"Why would I be jealous of that when I clearly have you as more than just a friend?" He asked, slipping an arm around Stiles' waist.

"I don't know, maybe it's because you have trouble with the whole 'friend' thing." He offered.

Derek just raised an eyebrow as his other hand slid downwards towards Stiles' ass. Stiles chuckled and kissed him once.

"You see, that's just what I mean, straight to the sex." He said with a smile.

"I happen to like the sex." Derek mumbled against his cheek, his lips trailing downwards, mouthing his neck gently.

"Yeah well I'm… I'm pretty fond of it too…" He breathed, getting distracted by the warm wet feel of Derek's tongue gliding against his skin.

Derek slowly turned him until he was pressing Stiles to the wall, holding him firmly in place with his hips.

"Wow… you really do have moon fever…" Stiles muttered as the solid pressure of Derek's overgrown cock throbbed against his hip.

Derek sighed and tore his lips away, sweat beading his brow and his eyes impatient. "Do you have a point to your ramblings? Because once we start this I'm not going to be able to stop." He said.

"Right, the whole full moon wanton-werewolf thing, I dig that-"

"_Stiles_…" Derek groaned, more of a whimper than anything else.

"I'm just – I mean we kind of jumped straight into the whole physical thing, and talking to Isaac the other night…" Derek let out a little groan. "… talking to Isaac made me think that we could maybe stand to be a little more like the two of them, you know, friends… maybe do a little more talking – which I know you hate but hear me out." Derek snorted but stayed quiet to let him finished_, probably because all the blood in his body had completely deserted his brain_, Stiles thought. "Sometimes I just feel like we're kind of… static?" He said.

"Static?"

"Yeah, you know, staying in the same stagnant position." He bobbed his head a bit and Derek gave him some room to breathe, stepping back to lean on the table. "You say a lot more than you used to but still… when you do it's all kind of cryptic or vague. You have no idea how many questions I have going through my mind that I'll never ask because then you won't say anything. I mean you really have no idea, my brain is kind of like this dark place where things are always spinning and going round in-"

"Stiles…" He said, stopping the onslaught of words that come from the lack of a filter between brain and mouth. "Just tell me exactly what you want." He said.

He sighed. "I don't know, can we just … get to know each other better? You could take me out on a date; I wouldn't be opposed to that." He shrugged and Derek looked almost amused.

"Don't we always do that?" He asked.

"I don't mean the 'hey, let's go and have loud crazy sex in the woods' kind of date, I mean an actual 'eat dinner in a restaurant' kind of date. I mean it doesn't have to be anything fancy or whatever, I just want to talk to you like people do when they… date. Like I said, we kind of skipped the getting to know you part." He shrugged.

Derek still had that corner of his mouth smile on, "If I say yes can we move on to more amusing activities?"

"Seriously, is the moonlight some kind of wolfy Viagra?" He rolled his eyes and walked towards Derek, dropping to his knees.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asked as he yanked hard on Derek's zipper. "I'm going to make you say yes even if you don't want to." He smirked a little and Derek laughed, not bothering to stop him.

"Oh believe me, I want to." He said, grinning as he closed his eyes and waited for what was sure to be a worthy onslaught.

Isaac headed straight to Scott's place, calling him on the way to make sure that he was in fact there and not like Erica said, waiting at Derek's. The thought of that really didn't make him comfortable on the journey over.

Melissa's car wasn't in the driveway, so he knew that she was covering the late shift. _Good_, he thought. The full moon had always been a time when his emotions were heightened but now that he and Scott were together one particular emotion was burning him so deeply that he didn't want to wait a second to get his hands on him.

As usual, Scott had left the door open for him. He headed inside, locking it before practically bolting towards the stairs and leaping up them three at a time. He reached Scott's door and wrenched it open to see Scott – sleeping. He was asleep.

Rolling his eyes he quietly took off his shoes and jeans, stripping down to just his white tee and boxers. As he slid in beside Scott, moulding their bodies together he let out a contented groaning sound, reaching back to hold Isaac into him.

"What took you so long?" He said sleepily, his body waking up faster than his mind.

"Nothing, I walked here from Stiles' place, remember my lack of a car?" He said, kissing the back of his neck and inching his fingertips under the elastic of Scott's underwear.

"You're so hot… you ran here didn't you?" He said cheekily, rolling over so that he could weld his lips to Isaac's.

They parted quickly, Scott's tongue dragging along the side of Isaac's as they both let out pleasured groans. Isaac nipped at Scott's bottom lip, biting him just hard enough to draw blood before it healed.

"Don't do that…" He mumbled against Isaac's lips.

"Why not?" He breathed, slowly pushing his hips back and forth causing just enough friction to have them both achingly hard in seconds.

"I have very little control as it is, let alone with you doing that…" He said, running his tongue along Isaac's teeth.

"Who said I wanted you to be in control, huh? Why don't you let go…?" He said raspingly, moving his teeth down to Scott's neck and biting him a little harder.

Scott grunted, his voice breaking slightly at the peak. "Isaac, I'll hurt you for real if I let go."

"What's the point in having super healing powers if I don't get a little pleasure out of it?" He said, brushing away a small trickle of blood with his tongue.

"Seriously… stop it…" Scott said, his eyes glowing yellow, unable to be held back.

"You should know by now that I like it when you get a little rough with me…" Isaac breathed.

Scott wet his bottom lip, his fangs descending slowly as the idea of losing control became even more enticing. He could see that Isaac's features were changing, the perks of being in a relationship with another werewolf was that you didn't have to have that constant control over yourself. Accidentally nicking them with one of your claws meant healing immediately, with a human… not so much.

"Maybe I wouldn't mind so much if you got _a lot_ rough with me…" His voice came out in such a throaty groan that Scott shook his head.

"You are such a bad influence." He growled, hopping up to pin him down, squeezing his wrists painfully.

"Don't pretend you don't like it." Isaac said and Scott just smirked down at him.

"Just shut up and let me get on with it." He growled.

"Not going to argue with that."


	12. Chapter 12

Erica let out a long hard sigh, her elbows propped up on her knees and her chin resting in her palm. She stared out ahead of her into more woods as she thought to herself.

"You know that's the third time you've done that since we got here." Boyd said, looking over at her and waiting for her to let it all out.

"So?" She muttered.

"So it's been like three weeks and you still haven't said more than two words in his company." He said.

"So?" She repeated, and Boyd just sat quietly and waited for the break. "What am I supposed to feel? _How_ am I supposed to feel?" She asked.

"About what?"

"About everything. I know I should be happy that this new pack is docile as anything and that there's nothing going on right now, I know that." She said, biting her lip and still looking straight ahead. "Is it wrong that I kind of miss things happening?" She looked up and Boyd shook his head.

"I know what you mean, kind of like this feeling is… wasted on just high school."

"It's not like I'm sitting around wishing for another Maeve or anything… I just… and then there's Derek." She said in a puff.

"Erica, it happened like three weeks ago, and you do push the line a little bit." He said, a smile creeping onto his face.

"I know I do, and for a while it was fun but it's not just that I got close to him after the whole incident, or that I kissed him-"

"This is Stiles we're talking about right?" He asked.

"Obviously," she snapped. "It's not just that, it's like he blames me for putting him in danger because he was with me and Jackson. But he doesn't blame him because he got himself knocked out before anything actually happened. I was the one that he risked his life for and so what? Does that make me the one to blame for what happened? He finds his own trouble without my help."

"This stuff still plays on your mind? After all these months?" Boyd asked.

"What the hell was I supposed to do? Die for him? I mean I guess I kind of would die for Stiles, I'd die for all of you really." She screwed up her nose. "That's not true, I'd die for the two of you… and maybe Isaac, depends on the day, but not the rest of them."

Boyd chuckled to himself and Erica looked over at him, almost surprised with herself for spouting out so much in one go.

"Oh god, did I really just say all of that?"

"Yeah, you really did." He smiled.

She sighed. "Please just ignore me… I'm probably getting my period or something."

"Do I have to tell you every month that I _really_ don't need to know that?"

She rolled her eyes with a smile. "Obviously. Look, I'll try to get over it but Derek is not the easiest person to settle something with."

"You know you're still doing it wrong." Derek said to Isaac as he read his essay over his shoulder.

"Oh my god would you stop doing that? It's my essay and it's fine." He said, trying to cover his words from Derek's prying eyes.

"I've read that book, and you're interpretation is wrong."

"It's my interpretation, how can that be wrong?"

"Trust me it is, I wrote that exact essay when I was a senior and you're going to do about as well as I did if you keep going down that path." He walked away, taking a bite out of his apple and picking up a book as he headed to the couch.

"Do you realise how impossible you are to live with?" Isaac said, looking over at him.

Derek gave him a blank stare. "Do you realise there's a reason for that?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm a burden I know, now get your nose out of my essay so I can finish." He turned back to his page and Derek shrugged.

After a few moments of silence Derek looked up. "Why aren't you doing this at Scott's place anyway?"

Isaac sighed. "He's got some stuff to do." He mumbled.

Derek raised an eyebrow but he didn't need to know, and it sounded like Isaac didn't want to think about it.

"Why are you still pissed at Erica?" That one caught him off guard and he gave Isaac a strange look.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know, I've just been wondering I suppose."

"Well stop it." He shut his book and began to head upstairs.

"Stiles said he was coming over after he finished his calculus!" Isaac called up the stairs, only to be responded to with a grunt and a slamming door. "Yep, love you too Derek." He muttered.

His ears picked up on a faint growling sound from behind Derek's door and he laughed to himself. "Thought you'd like that one."

He continued writing his essay, Derek's negative words not really affecting him in the slightest. He knew it was bad, and that was because he really wasn't concentrating on it anyway. The homework was a distraction from other things.

Why was he worried? He had nothing to worry about. Well, he hoped he had nothing to worry about.

He went round and round in circles over the next hour as he wrote out the same lines over and over. Everything seemed to be happening twice in his head, all the bad scenarios and unwanted outcomes… but his phone stayed silent as he waited for something, anything.

When Stiles finally showed up he figured that he was getting nowhere and it was probably time to give up.

"Hey, that your English assignment?" He asked as he threw his keys onto the table.

"Maybe, and don't come over here and tell me that it's all wrong. That's Derek's job." He muttered.

"Alright then." Stiles put his hands up and pointed to the stairs. "Speaking of Derek, is he upstairs?"

"Yes he is, escaping me and my questions."

"What's the matter with you? And what questions? Am I going to go up there to an angry, pouting alpha werewolf?" He asked.

"I just asked him about Erica and he left."

"Ah… well, yeah, sounds about right."

"I don't know, it's been long enough, why can't the two of them just get over it?"

"I don't even know what '_it_' is." Stiles mumbled. "But seriously, what's the matter with you? You're all twitchy and agitated."

"Have you talked to Scott?"

Stiles shook his head, a little frustrated at Isaac's avoidance techniques. "No Isaac, I haven't. Should I have?"

"I just thought he might have said something."

"About _what_?" He huffed, visibly aggravated.

Isaac looked up with worry over his brow. "He's telling his mom tonight."

"Oh… well… yeah that'd do it." Stiles said, brushing the back of his head with his hand.

Scott paced back and forth in his room, trying to plan a way to start the conversation he was getting himself into but there was just nowhere to lead from.

"Mom I'm – no, no that's not right… listen mom I think it's time we had that talk… damn it… mom – oh my god." He muttered to himself, just about leaping out the window when he heard the door open.

"Did you call me?" Melissa asked, poking her head through.

"No, I mean, I was just…"

"Well whatever you were just doing can you carry it on downstairs? Dinner's ready." She smiled before leaving the doorway and Scott just whimpered slightly.

_What the hell am I supposed to say_? He thought as he slowly left his room to go downstairs to the kitchen. His mom was already dishing up and he watched her for a moment before his phone buzzed in his pocket.

**You OK? How's it going?**

Isaac seemed almost more nervous than he was, if that were possible.

**_I'm fine, I'll text when it's done, just need to catch my nerve_**

**Well, I love you if that helps**

**_It doesn't but I love you too_**

**GL**

He was going to need more than just luck to get him through this conversation. He headed into the kitchen and huffed out his worries, sitting down at the table as his mother put his plate down in front of him.

The phrase 'wolfing down your food' never had so much meaning.

"Whoa, take it easy. You in a hurry to get somewhere?" Melissa laughed as Scott tried anything to keep his mouth full and unable to communicate.

He shook his head and she laughed.

"Alright." She said.

Just do it. You can't keep Isaac a secret from her forever. She's your mother.

It took him all of dinner to gear himself up to do it, by the last few mouthfuls he knew he just had to bite the bullet.

"Mom?" She looked up at him, concern flickering onto her features as she saw the anxious look on Scott's face.

"Yes… are you okay Scott? You look a little pale." She said.

"Uh… yeah, no I'm totally fine, better than fine actually…" he said, swallowing hard.

"Okay, what's going on?" The worry was gone, now she just looked intrigued.

He exhaled heavily, this was the time to do it. "Well I've… I've been a little down over Allison lately but I think I'm finally moving on."

"That's great sweet heart, it's all you can really do." She smiled and reached out to give his hand a squeeze.

"Actually I'm kind of seeing someone else." He said, clearly nervous.

"Oh really? What's she like?"

_Not helping mom_, "Before I say anything else I need to tell you that-"

"Oh my god… did you get someone pregnant?" She asked, raising her voice slightly.

"What? Mom no!" Scott said shaking his head because that was the last thing that he expected her to say.

"Then why do you look so guilty?"

"Because it's… because I'm…" She looked over expectantly, waiting for an answer and he sighed. "Mom it's Isaac, me and him are kind of… together."

For a moment she just stared at him, her jaw dropped as if she was about to speak but nothing was coming out. She took a breath, ready to say something but stopped short. She was having trouble believing what she was hearing.

"Please don't freak out." He said.

"I-" was all she could manage before leaving her empty plate sitting on the table and getting up, walking past him and straight up the stairs to her bedroom and locking the door behind her.

Scott slumped back in his seat, throwing back his head and grunting loudly as he took out his phone to text Isaac. As he stared at the message screen he decided against it and tossed it onto the table, groaning again before beginning to clear the table.

_This was a huge mistake_, he thought.

"Hey Sour wolf." Stiles said as he walked into the bedroom to see Derek reading in his bed.

He looked up with just his eyes and the look back down again.

"Oh come on, what's wrong with you?" He said as he kicked off his shoes and threw down his jacket, hopping up onto the bed and crawling over Derek.

Derek didn't move, he just sat there with a warning look and a deep furrow in his brow. Stiles tried to break that face, smiling and flicking his eyebrows about but Derek wasn't budging. As their faces drew closer Stiles grabbed his book, forcing it out of his hands and tossing it to the other side of the bed. He pressed his lips to Derek's, this time feeling a little give as Derek made his lips pliant and kissed him back.

Stiles let out a low rumbling sound. "See, isn't that much better?" he murmured against Derek's lips.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Someone's touchy tonight." Stiles said, pulling away and rolling onto his side next to him.

"You interrupted my reading."

Stiles scoffed. "Please, like you actually care about that. You're just sulking because Isaac asked you about Erica." He leant up and kissed his cheek fleetingly.

"Stiles…" He said with a warning growl.

"Oh come on Derek, please don't tell me that you're still pissed at Erica?" He grumped.

Derek said nothing, he just shook his head and Stiles sighed. There was something seriously wrong, with the two of them. This wasn't just some one-sided thing where Derek crossed a line. Erica had crossed them first, lots of them, just seeing how much she could push before he would snap.

"Seriously? Why does she get to you so much? You're not still jealous are you?" Stiles teased and Derek snapped.

"You want to know why I got angry? Do you want to know why I told her off the way I did? No, it's not because I'm jealous. I never was. I get angry because she refuses to listen. She finds loopholes in the things I say so she can overstep the mark. When I ask her to do a job or when I give her advice do you think I mean for her to do the opposite or to ignore me and find something that suits her own desires? She's reckless and irresponsible. When I give her – or any of the others for that matter, a job to do it's in the best interests of the rest of the pack. Sure, that time it might have been watching over someone but next time we could be out in the forest again and if I can't trust her to do something simple then how can I trust that she won't abandon someone out there?" Stiles sort of gaped at him for a moment, it had all spilled out so quickly.

"Do you blame her for… for what happened to me?" He asked softly.

Derek sighed. "Of course I don't. How was she supposed to stop it? If that sort of thing can happen when she's following my orders who knows what could happen if she's out doing whatever it is she wants. Someone could be killed. She could get herself killed." He said.

Derek and Erica had a somewhat strained relationship. Even if he didn't want to admit it he was jealous of her relationship with Stiles. He knew that the two of them talked and that there were some things that he might have said to her that he hasn't said to anyone else and he resents that. He doesn't put the blame for that on her, he puts it on himself for not opening himself up but that was something that would take a while to happen completely.

She liked to push the boundaries, he knew that, but there were some things that she needed to learn. She needed to figure out that sometimes his words were for her own good and not just because he enjoyed telling them what to do. In fact, that part was less enjoyable than he had once thought. He felt personally responsible for the rest of his pack and anything that happened to them was on his head and the last thing he wanted was for someone to get hurt.

"You know she has kind of a rough life at home…" Stiles began.

"I know that, do you think I would have turned her, turned any of them if there wasn't something they needed to escape?" Derek said.

"Well what about Jackson? He was rich and popular and all the rest of it."

"It's all about needing a bond, something that feels real. Plus Jackson just wanted to be better than Scott at lacrosse. Underneath that I think he knew the real meaning of pack." Derek said, almost done with the conversation that was taking a far too intimate turn for his liking.

"It's pretty powerful, huh?" Stiles asked.

Derek nodded. "I've said it before, losing a member of your pack is like losing a limb."

"Like losing family?" Stiles said, looking up from under his eyelids.

Derek shrugged. "My family was my pack, I couldn't tell you. I've never been human either so I couldn't try to explain it comparatively."

"I can totally imagine you as a puppy. How freaking cute would you have been?" He grinned.

"Please don't ever say that again."

"You know Scott's telling his mom about Isaac tonight."

"You really can't keep your mouth shut about anything can you?"

"You should keep me away from Lydia, she gets it out of me like pulling tissues from a box."

Derek shook his head and then froze. "If you tell her anything about me I swear to god I'll rip your throat out."

Stiles waggled his eyebrows and Derek shifted his body so that he was moulding himself to Stiles' side. "She doesn't really ask about any of the intimate details…" Derek's lips were ravishing his neck and his hand was searching for skin. "Well… not the emotional ones anyway."

Derek laughed. "Oh really? And what exactly do you tell her?"

"Enough to make her green with envy."

"You are a terrible human being."

"And you… well, you're not even human." He grinned as Derek stared down into his adoring eyes before planting a kiss on his eager awaiting lips.

Scott paced back and forth in the living room. It had been two hours since he had told his mother. _Maybe she went to take a nap, maybe she thought it was all just a dream. She didn't question it, she just sort of let me say it and then… took off._

His thoughts were on a permanent loop and he had no idea what she was going to say when she came out. He tried to listen for her but she didn't seem to be snoring or crying, which was probably a good sign. But then again it meant that she was awake and just thinking about it.

His phone buzzed and he looked down at another in a long line of unanswered messages from Isaac.

**So how did she take it? Is she alright?**

**Scott? Are you okay?**

**Let me know what happens**

**Sorry for all the messages, can't help that I'm worried about you. Love you**

Scott sighed. He didn't want to say anything until he knew exactly what was going on with his mom. She couldn't have seen it coming so maybe she just needed some time to adjust.

It was almost midnight when he heard the bed creak and her footsteps on the floor. He had almost fallen asleep but now he sat bolt upright, staring at the bottom of the stairs as he waited an agonising amount of time for Melissa to walk down them.

She took slow steps and paused at the flat landing to look over at him, those big brown eyes looking nervous and terrified at the same time. Scott said nothing as she walked over and stood about ten feet from him, not really meeting his eyes.

"So…" She started and he bit his lip. "How um… how long have the two of you…?"

"Uh, a few months I guess." He mumbled.

"You… and Isaac." She said.

"Yeah."

"I didn't misunderstand when you said – I mean you and Isaac are really…"

"Yeah, we're kind of… dating, I guess…"

The room filled with an unbearable silence that echoed through the familiar walls. Neither one of them said anything for a few moments; Scott didn't even know what to say.

"Sorry I – I just didn't really expect you to come out with that… well, not just over dinner but… ever." Scott stared down at his feet, trying not to hear disappointment in her voice and not even knowing if he was making it up. "So you kept it all a secret. Am I the last one to know?"

She almost sounded upset. "No, well, not exactly."

She nodded, sucking her cheek between her teeth and biting down on it. "Well… if you want me to get used to him being your – being with you then fine. You better call him and tell him that tomorrow night he has dinner plans. Here."

"What?" Scott asked, a little surprised.

"I'll take the night off work and we can catch up on what we've missed the last few months. Right now I'm going to bed… I need it." She mumbled the last bit as she rubbed her throbbing head. "Tomorrow night, not optional." She said before she turned around and headed back to her bedroom.

Scott still stood there, confused and wondering why she wanted Isaac over for dinner. This was going to be weird, awkward even. This would be the most uncomfortable dinner of his life to date; that includes the time his parents told him they were getting a divorce.

He grabbed his phone to call Isaac, who answered on the first ring.

"How'd it go?" He asked, not bothering to start with pleasantries.

"Uh… I don't really know."

"What? How can you not know?" Isaac asked.

"I just… she sort of ran, and then she came back and confirmed it and then…"

"And then what?"

"How are you at handling awkward situations?" Scott asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're about to be thrown into one. She wants the three of us to have dinner tomorrow night."

"Just the three of us?" Isaac swallowed.

"Yeah, just us three and one big freaking elephant in the room."


	13. Chapter 13

"You're really not helping Scott." Isaac said and Scott tried to calm him down before heading into his house for dinner.

"Well what else can I say? It'll be fine."

"You know what, I might believe you if you didn't have that look on your face."

"What look?" Scott said, trying to change his expression.

"That look like you're about to have a panic attack."

He sighed. "Sorry, I can't help it. She hasn't said a word to me all day and now we're supposed to go in there and – what? Have some big weird family dinner?"

Isaac groaned. "This is going to be painful, and not in the good way."

"Maybe don't say things like that at the table." Scott said, smiling through his panicked expression.

"Of course I'm not going to say things like that! God, why is this making me so nervous?" Isaac pulled at the collar of his navy blue button up shirt and Scott looked him up and down.

"Where did you get that shirt?" He asked.

"It's Derek's." Scott raised an eyebrow.

"Derek leant you a shirt?"

"Well, Stiles leant me one of Derek's shirts, I don't even care what he says about it because he laughed when I told him I was coming over here so screw him. Is it obvious that it's not mine?"

Scott thought that it fit him pretty well, too well in fact. If he wasn't so worried he would actually find it pretty hot. Then he screwed up his nose, remembering that it belonged to Derek. "Dude, you smell like Derek… and kind of like Stiles."

"Don't want to think about that."

"Me either."

Isaac managed a tiny smile before exhaling heavily and purposefully. "So, are we just going to sit across the street all night or are we actually going to go in there and get this damn thing over with?"

Scott sighed. "Can we just stay out here? It might be safer."

"No, now get in there so you can answer the door for me?" He pleaded.

"Fine." He gave Isaac a fleeting kiss before running back across the street and scaled the wall up to his bedroom window.

Once he was inside Isaac waited long enough for him to get downstairs casually before heading across the street to the somehow ominous door that seemed a lot bigger than it used to.

He didn't even feel his feet moving as it got closer. _This is ridiculous_, he thought to himself. _It's just Scott's mom, she's not that scary. Who am I kidding she'll kill me! _He steadied himself and walked up the porch steps until he was ready to knock.

Slowly he raised his close fist and knocked on the hard wooden door. He heard Scott say 'I'll get it' and rush to the door, opening it with an apologetic face and offered him his hand.

"Maybe not." Isaac said, looking more than a little uncomfortable.

Scott took his hand anyway, giving it a slow squeeze and shooting him a smile. "It's going to be fine." He said softly and all Isaac wanted was to curl up in his bed wrapped up in his arms. "Besides, this is what you wanted remember." He teased.

"Joking, now? Really?" Isaac asked.

"Come on." Scott said, dropping his hand and turning to walk down the hall and back to his kitchen where Melissa was standing with her back to them, stirring on the stove.

He coughed a little and she turned slowly, straight faced and silent as she looked from one to the other.

"Uh… hey Mrs McCall." Isaac said, his voice catching.

"Isaac… glad you could make it." She said, her smile smaller than he was used to. "It'll be ready in about fifteen." She gestured to the stovetop.

"Thanks mom, we might just watch some TV – unless you need a hand in here." Scott said.

"It's okay, I've got things under control in here." She nodded, turning back to the pot.

Scott quickly pulled Isaac by the sleeve and out of the kitchen. Once they were out of her earshot and well out of sight they let the air out of their lungs and plastered themselves against the living room wall.

"That was two seconds and it was impossible in there." Isaac groaned. "Can we pretend that I never wanted you to tell her and just go back to making out on the couch secretly when she's asleep?"

Scott laughed and turned to press his palms to either side of the wall beside Isaac and leant in to kiss him.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing? She is literally right there!" He hissed, pushing Scott back.

"Wait, just let go for a second, relax." Scott whispered as his fingers brushed Isaac's cheek.

He sighed as Scott leaned in to press his lips against the corner of his mouth. The soft velvet of his lips only just graced him with their presence and Isaac closed his eyes with a smile.

"You missed." He breathed.

Scott chuckled, kissing him just above his chin. "Better?"

"Nope, you missed again."

This time his lips found Isaac's. He kissed him softly, slowly, Isaac's eyes were still closed as he felt Scott part his lips and gently push his head back into the wall. His tongue etched a hot line on the underside of his top lip and Isaac felt the knots in his stomach begin to loosen. His hands shakily lifted to wrap around Scott's waist and the familiar smell of arousal flooded the room.

"Hey!" He pushed him back, "You can't be _serious_."

"You were probably right about the whole kissing thing." He smirked.

"How are you so relaxed right now?" Isaac hissed, trying to push Scott away.

"I figure if she was that against the idea of you and me she would have kicked me out last night, she definitely wouldn't have invited you over here. Not to mention the fact that she seems more… relaxed than I thought she would when you came in. Plus, I know it's wrong but you actually look really sexy in that shirt."

Isaac shook his head. "You're sick, did you know that?" Scott laughed and released him from the wall. "Can we not think about this until later on, please? If I can smell it in the room it's going to drive me crazy and I think I'm going crazy already just worried about having to go back in there."

"Okay, okay, I'll turn it off." He leant in quick for a peck on the cheek. "I'm just trying not to freak out, you know, positivity and all that."

"I know, and trust me when I say I would like nothing more than to have a regular night with you but we actually have to deal with this." Isaac gave him a look and Scott sighed.

"If it's absolutely necessary then you should know that I am totally freaking out on the inside, I mean you saw it on my face out there, but there's no point freaking out anymore. It's not like we can run." He shrugged.

"Well we could."

"Would you stop it? You're going to make me start freaking out again. Don't make me kiss you." Scott said.

"Alright! Keep your lips to yourself please."

"Okay, I promise, then tomorrow night I promise we can sit in bed back at your place and eat pizza and watch movies and you know, whatever else you want to do." He took his hand and led him to the couch to sit down as they turned the TV on.

"Really, you're still thinking about _that_?"

"Oh for god's sake I'm just trying to make you calm down." Scott said.

"You know what will make me calm down? Cartoons, that will calm me down." He pointed to the television and Scott sat back, the nervous smell in the air not helping him hold it back.

He had hoped that acting positive or excited would make it better for Isaac, but he was still pretty worried. Scott put his hand on Isaac's knee and looked over at him. Isaac could feel his eyes burning into the side of his face and shook his head.

"Would you stop it? You're not helping." He said, turning to look at him.

Scott mouthed the words 'I love you' and heard Isaac's heartbeat slow a little before he turned back to the TV. Scott wasn't really watching, he was just listening to his mother's movements in the kitchen.

He heard her pull some plates out from the cupboard and looked over slightly to Isaac, knowing that he was going to jump when she –

"Boys! Dinner's ready!"

He flinched hard and spun around to look at the doorway. Scott couldn't help but smile a little.

"Relax, okay, it's just a normal dinner, you've had dinners here before and it's been fine." He said as he stood up and offered Isaac his hand.

He took it and stood up beside him. "This is slightly different don't you think?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up and come on." Scott said and they both walked towards the door, Isaac's heartbeat rising again rapidly.

Stiles sat at home, one of the rare occasions where his father was home before eight at night. The two sat at the table in the kitchen playing chess and Stiles was trying as hard as possible to beat his father.

"I still don't know why you bother thinking about it so hard." The sheriff sat back in his chair and stared smugly down at his son as he leant his chin on the table and stared at the board. "You know you're not going to beat me."

"Yeah, yeah keep it down old man I'm in the zone right now." Stiles said, staring the pieces down hard.

The sheriff chuckled. "Tell you what, the day you beat me is the day I buy you that brand new computer you've been pining over."

"Yeah well get your bank account ready for it." He replied, finally making a move.

His dad chuckled again and took less than a minute to counter.

"What? I worked ten minutes on that and you've already got a plan?"

"I've been playing this for a hell of a lot longer than you have son." Stiles' brow furrowed again and the sheriff smiled.

He loved the nights when he got to spend some time with his son. He knew that he would probably be off in an hour, out with Scott or Derek but it didn't matter, so long as he had time to shoot down his confidence in a game of chess. He'll never learn otherwise.

"Yeah well my youthful brain is a lot quicker."

"Doesn't make you better at the game, sometimes you need to look at it longer, think about all the pieces before you see everything." He said. Stiles was still staring furiously at the board. "So don't you have anything else to do tonight?"

Stiles shrugged. "Nah, not really. Might see Derek later on –"

"He going to be staying the night again?" He raised an eyebrow and Stiles made sure to avoid eye contact as his cheeks flushed pink.

"Maybe." He muttered.

"Well what about Scott, what's he doing tonight?"

This time Stiles smirked. "He's having dinner with his mom and Isaac, he only just told her that they're dating."

The sheriff looked a little surprised. "Isaac and _Scott_?"

"You know you didn't even sound surprised about Isaac."

"Yeah well… have you seen the way he's been dressing now that it's getting colder? I mean the jacket is one thing but the scarves?" Stiles chuckled.

"Yeah well I guess there's something in the water."

"You and Scott never…?"

"Oh, god, dad no!" Stiles said recoiling with a shiver. "He's like my brother, I would never think of him that way."

"You'd just think about guys who've got criminal records and used to have warrants out for their arrest on suspicion of murder?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah because that's exactly the reason for it, I like the questionable past and who doesn't like a bad boy?" He said sarcastically.

Stiles made his move and the sheriff countered. "Check." He said.

Stiles stared frantically at the pieces and looked perplexed. "Seriously?"

"So how did Melissa take it?"

"Take what?" Stiles asked.

"The news that her son was…" He tried to find a fitting end to the sentence but Stiles butted in.

"Into tall blonde dudes with ridiculously good fashion sense?"

"Yeah, that." He said, shaking his head at his son's blatant words.

He shrugged, "From what I heard she didn't really say anything, she just kind of stayed quiet and then told Scott that the three of them were going to have dinner. That's just got to be _awkward_." He said.

"More awkward than finding your son on the porch in the arms of a former suspect?"

Stiles blushed again. "Probably, I don't know, it's never really been awkward when Derek stays for dinner."

"That's probably because there have never been any secrets where he's concerned. Like I said, you showed up at the door with marks all over your neck, you can't really hide that can you?"

Stiles felt a pang of guilt because of course there were still secrets, big fat werewolf secrets, but his dad was right, there was never much hiding from the rest of it.

"Yeah well it helped that you already suspected it, thank you very much."

"What? You got me thinking about it that night I caught you and Scott outside that club."

Stiles laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"Not to mention the fact that you never really had any girlfriends…"

"Okay dad, thanks for that."

The sheriff laughed and they both heard a knock at the door. "You want to go get that?" The sheriff asked.

"Why me? It's still my turn and I'm thinking." He said.

"Because it's probably Derek, I don't get visitors. And I don't trust you alone with the board because you cheat."

"I do not, how do I know you won't cheat?"

"I don't need to cheat, I'm already winning."

Stiles let out a grouching sound before pushing back his chair and walking to the door, opening it to see Derek standing there. He had a long sleeved button up on and black dress pants with surprisingly shiny shoes.

"Okay, what's going on?" Stiles said immediately and Derek rolled his eyes.

"Are you going to let me in? Or even say hello?" He said.

Stiles grinned and leapt at him, forcing their lips together and causing Derek to stumble back a step and grab Stiles by the waist to steady them.

"Hello." Stiles said with a smile when he had peeled their lips apart.

Derek just shook his head as Stiles took him by the hand and led him inside. As soon as they were in the kitchen he let go and headed straight back to the table and sat down in front of the board.

"Hey Derek, you look like you're ready to go somewhere." The sheriff said.

"Well I was going to see if I could steal him from you but if you're busy then we can just do it another night." Derek said.

"Oh believe me, we're almost done." He said dryly, smiling up at Derek as Stiles made another move.

"Ha!" He shouted as he moved his bishop three spaces upwards and to the left.

The sheriff stood up as he slid his castle down two spots and put a hand on Stiles' shoulder as he said the words, "Check mate." Stiles just gaped down at the board and Derek tried not to laugh so hard. "He's all yours… if you can deal with his sore loser attitude." He smiled.

Derek shrugged, "I've seen it all, I'm sure he won't be any worse than usual."

The sheriff chuckled and gave Derek a swift clap on the shoulder as he headed out towards the living room. "Just let me know if you're going to be home, otherwise… have fun." He said to Stiles.

"I demand a rematch!"

"Have a good night Stiles." He called from around the corner.

"Did you see that? Did you see how cocky he was when he won? God, he loves it, he just loves to rub it in." He said, still trying to figure out where he went wrong.

"Maybe you should spend less time worrying about winning and more time trying to figure out how to play the game." Derek said.

"Oh I know how to play the game… he just knows better." He said.

"Come on then." Derek tugged at the sleeve of his sweatshirt and Stiles stood up again.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"First we're going to put you in some decent clothes." Derek said, still pulling him by his shirt, this time leading him up the stairs.

"So we're not going to go back to yours to eat Chinese in bed?" He asked.

"If we were going to do that I wouldn't get you to put clothes on would I?"

"No, usually you make me get out of them before we get anywhere near the bed." He smirked and Derek threw him into his room roughly. "Easy there Sour wolf."

"Put something half decent on." He demanded.

"Okay, okay. Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?" He walked over to the closet, hoping he had anything slightly civilised to wear.

"Out."

"Someone's cryptic tonight. By the way I let Isaac borrow one of your shirts." He said.

"I know." He growled. "Did it have to be the blue one?"

Stiles laughed. "Yeah, it did."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Well hurry up then."

"Come on, just a little hint?" Stiles pleaded with a grin as he pulled his hoodie off and slipped his arms into a white button up.

"We're going out to dinner, alright?" He said.

Stiles nodded, not wanting to make a big fuss but inside he was going wild_. Is Derek actually taking me on a real date? Could this be real or am I just dreaming right now_?

Isaac stomach was turning as he twisted the spaghetti around his fork, staring down at it intently. Scott sat to his left and Melissa sat across from them, the chillingly silent air seemed to howl through the small dining room.

"So Isaac…" He looked up at Melissa, feeling the sweat beading on his forehead. "When exactly did the two of you figure out these… mutual feelings for one another?"

Isaac took in a breath, "uh…" As he took a moment to try and recover his thoughts Scott put his hand on his knee, rubbing gently with his thumb and trying to slow Isaac's heart. "Well, it kind of started – for me – as, well, as a wolf thing." He swallowed hard.

"A wolf thing?" She asked, her eyes getting wide.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to explain…"

"So you're saying this is some kind of weird wolf phenomenon?"

"_Mom_, that's not what he means." Scott said, trying to give him mom the hint to stop sounding so aggressive.

"No, well, not the part where he's… and I'm … not that part, just the initial… attraction part I guess." He said, looking back down at his dinner.

Scott thought about it for a second and then looked back up at him. He couldn't have been, not a trigger, could he? He knew what he felt for Isaac back then, and he knew that it had gotten even stronger that night that they had said that they loved one another but could that have been the seal of a trigger bond?

Isaac's eyes darted up to meet his and the look said it all. He hadn't told him that he had been a trigger, he knew that Scott hadn't felt the same way about it, he knew that he had been on the receiving end and didn't want to mar the budding relationship. Isaac could remember all of the things that Stiles and Derek had to argue about in the beginning because of that tiny detail and he didn't want Scott and him to end up bickering about it but he couldn't pretend that he hadn't felt that impossible pull, that irrevocable need and lust that led to something more.

Scott thought about it to himself. Could that have been why he had been drawn to him? In some way could it have been mutual? Could the wolf that lived inside of him have been pining for Isaac, could it sense the bond that was waiting to be sealed?

He felt an incredible urge to grab Isaac by the sides of his face and pull him in for a hungry kiss, to lose himself in the ecstasy that it was to touch him and just forget about everything else. Somehow doing that with his mother less than three feet from them wouldn't have gone down well.

"Well what does that mean?" Melissa asked, slightly confused.

"I'll explain it later mom, it's called a trigger." Scott said and Isaac let out a small sigh of relief.

"Right… wolf thing, I get it." She said, going back to eating in silence for another few mouthfuls.

Isaac's hunger had seemed to come back a little, or maybe it had just got to the point where the food was smelling too good to let it go to waste. He even plucked up the courage to compliment Mrs McCall on her cooking. She looked up at him for a moment before a small smile appeared and she thanked him.

By the time they had all finished Scott helped her gather the dishes but she took them out of his hands and headed straight through the door and into the kitchen to clean up. That's when Isaac finally took a breath and let his shoulders drop.

"Hey…" Scott said softly, turning sideways in his chair to stroke Isaac's arm, then his cheek, tilting his chin upward. "It's going pretty well, at least I thought so anyway." He gave him a warm smile and Isaac's eyes looked tired.

"Well it's not a train wreck." He said as he leaned into Scott's comforting hand. "I'm… I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the whole trigger thing earlier I just-"

Scott leant in, his lips lightly brushing against Isaac's with a smile that he couldn't put away. He felt Isaac's fingers lightly wrap around his wrist before he pulled back, staring into his perfectly human eyes before they flashed a bright golden yellow. He felt his own flash an identical shade and they both smiled before sharing another quick kiss.

Melissa was about to head back in and ask Scott for help with the dishes but stopped when she realised she could see through the crack in the door.

She felt something inside her melt as she saw the way they looked at one another. A smile tempted her lips and she leant against the frame as she watched Scott gently stroke Isaac's knee to calm him down and the way they exchanged loving glances and she could just see that the two of them had something special.

She remembered a time that she herself had been like that, her marriage hadn't started as a failure. Everything she could see, all of it was the last thing that she had thought about when Scott had told her that they were together. She didn't even know what it was that she had thought about it but she knew what she thought about it now.

"Scott?" She called and he jumped up. "Can you give me a hand in here?" She turned and walked back into the kitchen and stood by the sink.

"I'll be back in a second." He whispered to Isaac before getting up to see his mom. "Yeah mom, I'm coming."

As he walked into the kitchen Isaac strained his ears to hear everything.

Scott walked in to see his mom smiling at him as she leant on the sink. "What's going on?" He asked, suspicious of her newly friendly behaviour.

"Scott, I'm sorry." She said and he raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry I acted like this was something I couldn't handle, I just – you took me by surprise there."

"I know, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you… I just, I had enough trouble admitting it to myself let alone telling you. I didn't want to disappoint you." He said.

"Oh sweetheart…" She walked over to him, closing the gap between them and wrapping her arms around him. "You could never disappoint me with something like this. I can see how much he means to you, even before you told me I knew that you were close friends… I mean he's practically lived with us on and off the last few months. I'm just glad you're happy." She put a hand to his cheek and smiled at him so brightly that he knew she meant it and he felt a weight lift off of him.

"I thought you were mad."

"No, not at all, you just need to give me some time to adjust to the whole thing. I mean that's a lot to drop on someone in one go." She said with a smile. "And then there's the fact that he's been living here and I can't even start wrapping my head around that one yet-"

"Okay, mom, that's getting a little awkward." He said and she laughed.

"Just, don't think that I'm going to look at you any different. You're my son, and I love you no matter who you love, and you know I think the world of Isaac."

"I love you mom." He said with a smile and she pulled him into her arms again.

"I love you too Scott." She squeezed him hard before letting out a chuckle. "Now maybe I should go and apologise for being so cold to Isaac in there, I just didn't know exactly where to start talking. The poor kid looks absolutely terrified."

"He can hear you mom." He said and Isaac stood in the doorway, still looking awkward but slightly less nauseous.

"Hey Mrs McCall." He said slowly.

She tilted her head with a smile. "Come here, come on, get into it." She said, laughing to break the awkward tension.

He walked over slowly and she pulled him into her, still awkwardly but Scott and Isaac gave one another smiles because they knew that this step was behind them.

"Now boys…" Melissa said, releasing them both and putting her hands on her hips. "I think I still need to tell you to make sure you're safe when-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Okay mom, thanks we got it, can I please do some dishes or something?" Scott said, turning a brighter red than Isaac had ever seen.

"That would be great and Isaac, you can get the ice cream out and get us all a bowl because you both are too young to drink and this works just as well. I'm going to have a drink though because I didn't think we were going to make it through that dinner." She said and Isaac actually managed to laugh as he headed for the freezer, suddenly very hungry.

"Are we there yet?"

"Would you shut up? You're like a child."

Derek shook his head as Stiles took the opportunity to tease him on their drive.

"Well you won't tell me where exactly we're going so how am I supposed to know when we're there?" He said.

"We're there right about now so shut your mouth." Derek growled as they pulled up in the parking lot of one of the restaurants in the centre of Beacon Hills. "You said you wanted an actual date right?"

Stiles was grinning from ear to ear as they got out of the car and headed towards the door. Derek wouldn't take his hand or even look at him all that much as they talked to the woman at the desk and she led them to a quiet booth towards the back. He did however agree to playing footsies under the table.

"So, this is kind of like our first real date." Stiles said.

"Can you get that stupid smile off your face?" Derek said.

"Hey, you brought me here, you should have known that I would behave like this." He said, leaning back in the seat.

"I did." Derek held out his hand on the table and Stiles slipped his into it easily, relishing the quiet brush of Derek's thumb over his fingertips.

"Okay, you win." He said softly, just wanting to kiss him for doing this. "Thank you."

Derek gave him a warm smile, one of the ones that made Stiles' heart flutter and his affections grow stronger.

"There's something else…"

"Oh god, here we go…" Stiles said, waiting for the kick.

"You said that you didn't know me, you said you wanted me to open up."

"I know and I shouldn't have-"

"_Stiles_, could you maybe try learning to listen?" Derek said with a sigh and he nodded. "Well… you're right." He said, looking away.

"I am?"

"I know, hard to believe."

"Ha, ha, you're funny."

"I'm saying that if you want to know something then just ask, now. If you want to know something I'll tell you."

Stiles' jaw dropped, unable to believe what Derek was saying. "Derek you don't-"

"Before I change my mind, I'll tell you what you want to know. I know that's important to you. So go on, ask me anything." Derek's eyes were sincere, blazon with vulnerability as he laid himself bare for Stiles to take the things that he wanted.

It had taken a long time but he finally felt ready to let parts of himself out and Stiles was the one he wanted to share them with… eventually, if he could get over his shock and say something.


	14. Chapter 14

_Stiles – _

Holy shit; did he just say what I thought he said? No, wait maybe, wait yes! Is this actually happening? If it is, where do I start? There are so many things that I want to know about him, I want to know it all. I don't think one dinner will cover it but if he's in the mood to talk now it's the first time I've seen it since we got together. Who knows when it will happen again?

He was looking over at me expectantly, actually kind of amused with that half smile on his lips. "This would be the part where you say something." He said.

"You realise the power you're giving me right? I mean my head just literally exploded inside."

He laughed and shook his head. "Okay well let me give you some ground rules."

"There it is, I knew there'd be a catch." I mumbled.

"I'll answer anything you ask but I'm not going to do it all night. When I say stop that's it." He said and I shrugged a little. "And then I get to ask you a few things." He said, like he had some big bad questions up his wolfy sleeve.

"Dude, deal." I said and he rolled his eyes with a smile, turning away.

He was still holding my hand, stroking it softly and had his feet pressed up against mine under the table. There was something different about him, something I hadn't seen before but I liked it. He wasn't being bossy and domineering, he was just being… himself. I mean, maybe it was himself, maybe it was someone else, who he wanted to be. I don't know.

I don't even think he knows. Maybe I should start with something like that. This is ridiculous, I should just be able to ask him something without overanalysing it. I guess I just don't want to waste a miracle moment like this one on stupid questions.

Our moment was broken when the waitress flounced over to the table. "Hey I'm Jess and I'll be your server this evening, can I get you any drinks or starters?" She said with a smile.

I saw her eyes dart to our hands entwined on the table and then back to our faces, trying not to stare.

"I'll just grab a whiskey and coke thanks." Derek said with a charming smile.

"Me too." I made a clicking sound with the corner of my mouth and Derek laughed.

"He'll have a coke." He said and she nodded, writing it down and bouncing away. "I'm not getting you drunk in the middle of a restaurant in the town where your father is the sheriff." He said.

"I bet you can't say that ten times fast." I said.

"Shut up Stiles." He smiled.

I guess this is my moment, what the hell should I ask him? "Okay if you hadn't said that I would totally be asking what the hell you'd done with Derek."

"You know if you wanted to ask me anything now would be the time to do it." Derek seemed actually kind of amused at the whole thing. "When she clears the plates from our main meal I'm going to stop answering your questions, I know they're in there."

I smiled, biting down on my lip. "Hey, I don't want to mess this up, alright? Just give me a few minutes to think this through." He laughed to himself and when I should have been thinking of questions I was stupidly distracted by his perfect smile.

Maybe I should ask him how he keeps his teeth so god damn white.

Jess came back with our drinks and asked about entrée but Derek gave her a charming look and told her to give us a few more minutes to decide. When she was gone he tilted his head and looked over expectantly. Okay, running out of time here and you still haven't asked him anything Stiles, come on.

I don't know why but suddenly I just stared rolling off a whole lot of completely pathetic questions like we were on some crappy daytime quiz show.

"What's your favourite colour?"

"Green."

"Favourite song?"

He shrugged. "Don't really have one."

"Book then?"

"White Fang."

"Nice Derek, nice. What's your favourite thing to do in bed?"

"I'll show you later."

"Good answer. What did you always want to be when you grew up?"

He smiled over at me and then looked away. "The sheriff." He said.

"What? Why?" I asked, really not expecting _that_ answer.

"I don't know, ask your dad why he wanted to be sheriff." He said with a shrug.

"Fair call." I said, thinking that maybe I should actually go and do that because I don't think I ever have.

"Stiles?"

"What?"

"Why don't you just ask me the thing you really want to ask me?" He said, his features soft, waiting for me to ask him something he can actually answer.

And then I figured something out; the whole 'I know you want me to tell you about me' deal is true but I think he also kind of _wants _to tell me too. I mean that would explain the terrified look on his face.

I sighed. "Anyone would think you actually wanted me to know you Derek." I said softly.

His gaze bore into mine and I swallowed, his eyes tracing the lines on my face down to my throat, watching the jugular pump quickly under my skin. The hand holding mine turned my wrist up and pulled it towards him as he leant down to put his lips to it.

"I'm not good at saying things Stiles…" He said, sitting back up and looking over at me.

"I know Derek," I nudged my shoulders up a little. "You don't have to be."

"So ask me something already." He said, not able to say the thing that he was actually thinking.

Every time he says 'I love you' it's like pulling teeth. It's like he physically has trouble doing it. Good thing he has this look in his eyes that says it for him.

Anyway, I should probably ask him something, he seems anxious to start talking which is like, just short of a miracle. And I do have a question hanging around, one that I've kind of thought about for a long time but never really asked, and I don't think he'll see it coming.

"What was Laura like?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes, looking at me in a confused manner.

"That's… an interesting question." He said slowly.

"Hey, you said you'd answer anything and I kind of always wanted to know." I shrugged.

He nodded and let out a sigh as he thought about her. "Well, before everything happened she was… I mean I've never met anyone who comes close to the way she was. I guess she was sort of like my mother. She was always laughing or singing or trying to protect me from things that I really didn't need protecting from." I saw his eyes shining, glittering in the romantic lighting and I realised I had never known just how much he had cared about her. I was always thinking about how he buried her outside his house, half of her anyway. Even after being together all this time I never thought about how much he could have cared about her but now, I can see it. "We used to joke about how I was her favourite in the family, and the other way round, I could always talk to her when something was wrong. She just… she had the capacity to be so brimming with laughter and then when it mattered she would come down and just…" He smiled, the kind of smile that I rarely see him wear and it hurt to watch it fade as the glittering in his eyes disappeared. "After it all she was different. We both were. She didn't laugh any more. She didn't dance… suddenly she was the alpha of a pack that didn't even exist. I never saw the Laura that I grew up with after that day. She burned down in that house."

"So what was she like after?" I said softly.

"Colder. Determined to make us both move on and forget. Somehow it made her stronger. If it weren't for her I don't know where I would be." The sadness in his eyes made my whole body ache. "She saved me from a lot of things, made me promise that nothing would ever make me weak again."

"You miss her don't you?" I said softly.

"Yes." He said after a moment of thought. "She was everything I had left."

"What were the others like?"

He looked up with a tilted head, "the others?"

"Your family, what were they like?" I still felt like I was treading on shaky ground. He didn't really say much and before I got the chance to say anything the damn waitress was back for our order.

Derek slipped back into his charming mode easily and that was kind of scary but at least he didn't bite her head off because I was bringing up his family. We ordered and she left, and so it was back to the slightly awkward silence we had left.

"Why all the questions about my family?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Well, I'm not going to get the chance to meet them, I want to know about them. I mean, your mom is supposed to be this amazing woman that everyone somehow knows and I want to know why, and you went through a hell of a lot with Laura. Then there's your dad who I've never heard anything about and I don't even know if there were any others… just tell me about them, all of them."

He just stared back at me, I could see the thoughts swilling through his mind like fish in a crowded pond. He was letting it all back in, the things he'd tried to forget because… because what? _Made me promise that nothing would ever make me weak again_… Oh, that.

"Derek if you think this was a mistake then-"

"My dad…" He started, shutting me up pretty darn fast. "My dad wasn't like the rest of us. Three kids and not one was human like him. I think he actually liked it that way." His eyes were distant but he seemed to be letting his memories in willingly, smiling a little. It was mesmerising. "Most of his arguments with my mother were about how he could never win arguments, and sometimes he just didn't understand it all but he never would have given it up. Not for anything.

"He didn't want to be like us though, so for a while when we were little he had to keep his distance. Teething was an interesting time. I know I got bitten a number of times by my little sister." I gave him a look, little sister? I didn't know he had a little sister too. "Cora, she'd probably be about your age now if…" He sighed but shook it off. "She was only a kid… she was a bit of a firecracker too, but she was my dad's favourite. Mostly, she was his favourite because she was so feisty and cheeky, I was the favourite because I was his only son, and Laura, well she reminded him of mom and he always said that one day he hoped to see her become just as much of a leader as she was.

"She did, he just never saw it. Laura and my mother were different from me and Cora and Peter, from everyone. My mother could turn into a wolf, a real wolf. It was rare and that's why so many others like me knew about her. They sought her out for advice and sometimes they thought she was destined to be something more, I don't know." I don't even know if he can stop everything coming out of his mouth now, it seems to be pouring out, like I'm not even here, like he's just thinking it all through in his mind. "After the fire Laura slowly figured out that she could do it too. I think she always knew, she just didn't want to have that on her shoulders. She did the same thing that I did for a while and blocked it all out because the memory was… back to the rest of them-"

"Derek… you know you don't have to keep going." I said, taking my hand and stroking his arm with it, still holding his tightly with the other. "I get it… really I do."

He smiled slightly, sliding his foot up and down my calf to let me know that we were on the same page. I saw him turn his head quickly and let go of my hand. I was about to question when I saw the waitress appear with our food in hand.

Crap, have we really been here long enough to have our food already? I'm running out of time. I can see he's already shutting off and I know he can't help it, that I went in with the big guns probably contributed to that.

We thanked the waitress and started our meals. I don't know how, but Derek is sexy even when he eats. The way he moves his fork, the way he licks his lips after a bite, everything just makes me want to keep watching him.

"Maybe you should stop staring and get to eating." He mumbled through a mouthful of spaghetti, still sexy.

"Oh no, the longer this plate is on the table the longer I have to keep you talking." I said, taking a bite out of my bread roll.

"Well get on with it."

I thought about asking him about Paige, I really, really wanted to but maybe I should quit with the traumatising past questions and ask him something that won't make him want to shut down and run away.

"What's the best memory you have?" I asked, knowing that it would probably still head down the traumatising path.

"Of what?" He asked.

"Of what – of anything Derek, just something great that you can remember, but not about me because I know all of that stuff." He laughed and I took another bite of my food as he thought about it.

"Do you mean-"

"For god's sake Derek anything, whatever the hell comes to mind when I say 'great memory'. I just want to hear about _something_."

He shook his head and took another bite, still thinking. I personally think he's just biding his time so he can avoid my future questions. Freaking sour wolf.

After his ridiculously long mouthful was done he looked up and I gave him a glance that said 'well?' and he smiled.

"It was one of our camping trips. I know I told you that we used to go." I nodded so he continued. "Well, me and Laura had gone down to the creek, about ten minutes' walk from the site, and met Peter, then someone suggested we go and get Cora. I think I was about twelve, she was only five and I was the one who had to go back and get her. She was asleep in her tent and as I walked in my mom and dad were just… dancing, slow dancing in the trees, no music, just laughing and dancing. They didn't even see me. I don't know why but I watched them for a while. They were so… something.

"I went and got Cora and she was grumpy at first but then she was so happy because we were older and including her and she woke up slowly as I carried her back. When we got there Laura and Peter were just lying in the grass, heads next to one another staring up into the trees. I lay with them and Cora curled up next to me.

"All we did was talk, I can't even remember what it was about but… that's the memory that I thought of." He said.

I seriously just want to pull him into my arms and hug him right now. I have never seen Derek like this, and I doubt I'll ever see this Derek again.

"Your best memory includes Peter?" I asked, a small smile creeping onto my lips.

He chuckled. "The Peter you know now and the Peter I knew back then isn't the same person. Trust me, he was much different when we were younger."

"I'll take your word for it."

"You're going to have to."

We sat in silence for a little longer as we continued to eat, another question playing on my mind.

"So… do you, uh, do you ever think about, I don't know…"

"What is it Stiles?" He asked softly.

I looked up at him from under my lashes and looked down at my food, pushing the last few bits around the plate. "It's nothing I mean… do you ever think about having a family of your own?"

I didn't look up, I didn't want to look up. Man, I can't believe I just asked him that. Now he's going to think I'm some kind of… god I don't even know. I felt him reach out to me again, stilling my hand from fidgeting and forcing me to look up into his eyes.

"Why are you asking that?" He asked slowly.

He didn't seem like he was going to run, not angry or cold, just genuinely curious as to why I asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I mean we've talked about your family and stuff and I just wondered if one day you ever wanted to… start your own. Is that so hard to fathom that the conversation would move from that to this?"

He laughed quietly and looked away, I'm not sure if he believes me but I don't know what else to say. I saw him contemplate the idea, I watched his face change as he thought it over and oh my god was it driving me mad.

"Seriously Derek is it that hard a question?" I said, slightly involuntarily.

"No." he said flatly.

I just looked up at him. "What? No it's not a hard question or no you never think of it?"

"I don't think of it."

"Well if you were to think of it…"

"No." He said, his eyes somehow colder.

What does that mean? "No what?"

"No, I don't want to. If I think about it, that's my answer." I'm not sure why it made my heart sink, but it did.

I made sure my voice was steady before I said anything, I didn't want him to think – hell, I don't even know what I'm thinking. "Just straight up no? Like you never wanted to… have kids or get married or I don't know, buy a house in the suburbs and get a dog?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "A dog? Really?"

"That wasn't the main point of what I just said Derek and you know it." I snapped.

He looked taken aback and I dropped my fork onto the plate, pushing it away from me because I was done playing with my food. I don't know why I said that so forcefully, I don't know why any of this is coming as a shock to me or why I'm reacting so badly but for some reason; I am.

"Okay…" He said slowly. "Once, once I thought about it, but that was a long time ago. My thoughts and plans have changed since then. I have a pack now."

I fought back the urge to scoff at him. "You have a pack now? And what happens if you meet someone who doesn't?"

"Stiles… I don't know what you want me to say… do you-"

"Oh my god, I'm seventeen years old do you really think – I'm not thinking about that, not yet." I said.

"Well if you were to think of it…" He said, copying my earlier ploy.

"If I were to think of it then yeah, I would like to think that there was something else in my future other than… I don't know, okay, I don't think about it and that's my point but I'm not saying that I never want something… _else_."

Yeah, good work Stiles, because that didn't sound ridiculous or stupid or anything else.

He nodded quietly. "It's just where I stand, that's all." I nodded back in response and he looked almost lost, like he didn't think I was going to go all crazy on him.

Hell, I didn't even know that. I laughed a little awkwardly. "Well, that was fun. Sorry about the snapping and-"

"I don't want you to apologise. We aren't going to agree on everything."

I snorted. "Derek we don't agree on anything."

A smiled crossed his lips. "That's not true."

I laughed, he's a sour wolf most of the time, but he has his moments.

"Did you enjoy your meals?" I jumped as the waitress came to collect our plates.

Wait, no, not yet! I still have so many questions.

"It was beautiful, thanks." Derek smiled up at her and she gave him one in return as she took them away.

"So what did you and Laura do when you left Beacon Hills?" I asked, hoping he had forgotten his earlier terms and conditions.

"I don't think so. You know what I said earlier." He said with a cheeky smile that I just wanted to punch of his smug little face.

He handed me a dessert menu and I snatched it away as all these perfect questions came popping into my head.

"That was when you had your little experimental phase wasn't it? How many drugs _did _you do?" He just shook his head. "Wait, did you experiment with other things too? You ever been with another guy?" He looked up with a smile that made me wish I could read minds for just the next five minutes. "Wait come on, please? Just one more?"

"You'll have to settle with not knowing intimate details of the things I did back when I was single." He said.

"So is that a yes, you have been with another guy?" I asked and he just laughed.

"Pick something you want for dessert." He said, staring down at the menu with a smile.

I exaggerated my movements and huffed about a bit as I opened the menu to read it and pretended not to see Derek's ridiculously perfect smile from behind his.

We picked out our food and Derek was back to holding my hand by the time the menus had been taken back and he was giving me this look. I don't like it. I don't know what it means.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" I asked.

"I said you could ask me anything, and you did, and I answered-"

"Most of them you did." I mumbled.

"I gave you my terms, you could have asked me that first." He smiled. "Well now I have things that I want to ask you."

"Well don't expect it to be like pulling teeth because I don't have anything that I need to hide." I said.

"I've only got two things that I want to ask." He said.

"Well you better do it quick because if she clears our plates before you ask one then you're asking for trouble."

He laughed and shook his head. "Two questions, that's all."

"Go on then."

"Why do you keep pretending that things aren't going to change next year?" He asked.

"What? I'm not doing that, change how?" I asked.

"Well, no one can really bring up college without you making a fuss and changing the subject. Why don't you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"I have talked about it, I talked about it with Erica."

"So talk about it with me now." He said, almost growling.

"What is there to talk about? It's a long way away."

"Colleges start opening their doors to prospective students in the New Year. That's only a few months away Stiles."

"God, you sound like my dad." I grunted.

"Do you know what you want to do when you leave high school?"

"I have ideas but I also have time."

"That doesn't answer the question as to why you keep pushing it away."

"No, but it does answer your other related questions."

"Well I didn't want answers to those, not as much."

"Everything changes next year, okay?" I blurted and he stopped talking. "We all go to different colleges and everyone keeps talking about what they want to do and where they want to go and no one is actually saying anything about how that means that we scatter and things change. I don't know where Scott's going or what he wants to do… hell he'll be able to get a scholarship to any school for lacrosse now that he's the star. He might want to leave, I might want to leave. We all might."

"That's what happens Stiles." He said.

"I know but it's just a lot to take in right now and it sort of came running in really quickly and next thing I know we'll be passing the finish line and … then what?" I sighed.

"Then you figure out what comes next."

"I guess so." I said.

His foot was rubbing my leg again, warm and comforting and god I hate how he does that, but I don't want him to stop.

"So you had two questions, what was the second?" I asked.

He looked down and cleared his throat a little before looking back up. "You promise you'll answer me, honestly?"

"Yeah Derek I promise, okay, what's with all the faces?" I pointed to the almost nervous look in his eyes and he sighed.

"I want – I want to ask you why… why you blame yourself for your mother's death?" He said.

And I just sat there, my jaw dropped, absolutely dumbfounded.

It had gotten to be pretty late and Melissa had retired to bed for the night, more or less mentally drained from a dinner she won't soon forget. Scott was elated, finally feeling free to be with who he wanted, no more secrets. Isaac was mainly relieved that he hadn't been given a few harsh words from Mrs McCall, she could actually be pretty terrifying.

The pair sat on the couch, the television on but neither of them watching. Scott had his chest tightly against Isaac's, hands cupping his square jaw as their tongues thrashed together. Isaac let himself taste every inch of Scott's mouth, running his tongue along the inside of his top lip before Scott took his bottom lip between his teeth, tugging gently and causing Isaac to groan loudly.

He pulled back, pushing Scott off him as he tried to catch his breath.

"As much as I really, really want to do this, I don't think I'm going to be able to do it _here_ for a while yet." He said.

"Scott grunted. "Oh come on, she's asleep, and we don't have to do it here… we can go up to my room." He grinned.

"This is all coming from the guy who wouldn't even let me _blow_ him in the kitchen, when his mom _wasn't_ home." Isaac teased.

"Come on… I'll be really quiet." He whispered as he nipped at Isaac's ear.

"I seriously doubt that." Isaac smirked and shoved him back, forcing him to stop his tantalising assault. "Not here." He said firmly.

Scott sighed, rolling his eyes a little as he sat back, trying to think about anything other than the fact that the room was just dripping with the scent of arousal. He closed his eyes for a second, breathing slowly and a smile played over Isaac's lips.

"Although…" He began and Scott looked over with a grin. "Derek did take Stiles out tonight, odds are they won't be back for another hour or so at least."

Scott's grin got wider and they were out the door in seconds. The two of them hopped onto the back of the bike and Scott drove them – possibly a little too fast – to the loft.

"So you're sure they aren't here?" Scott purred against the flushed skin on Isaac's neck as he stood behind him in the lift, pulling his hips back slowly.

"Did you see a big black Camaro out there?" He said, his eyes rolling shut as his body reacted to the things Scott was doing to him.

"I wasn't really looking at the cars." He said as the doors opened to the living room.

He grabbed Isaac's wrist, dragging him towards the stairs.

"You know we don't have to do it in bed, they'll be gone long enough." Isaac said, pulling Scott away from the stairs and roughly into his arms for a kiss.

Scott growled playfully, his hands slipping down Isaac's back and down to his ass, giving it a squeeze as he held him close. "Maybe, I never said we had to do it in bed, I just don't want to be down here and halfway through when they get back…" Isaac was about to say that they would be able to hear them coming but Scott wrapped his fingers in the mess of his curls and pulled his head back so that his hot breath fanned over his face. "… because when I start fucking you I'm not going to stop until you're a hot shaky mess and can't even remember your own name." He breathed in a dry rasp.

Isaac felt his stomach flip, his heart pound and his jeans grow impossibly tight.

"Who are you and what have you done with Scott?" He breathed.

"What? You don't like the plan?" Scott rumbled.

"Oh I do, that's why you should get your ass up those stairs right fucking now." He growled back.

Scott smiled, taking him by the wrists again and dragging him up to Isaac's room, not even bothering to shut the door before throwing him against the wall and running a hand down his chest. He slipped a finger under Isaac's belt and gave it a tug.

"Not much room to breathe." He said with a raise of his eyebrow.

"You want to help me out there then?" Isaac said, panting audibly.

Scott slowly pulled the buckle out, slipping it through the loops and dropping it to the floor. He got down on his knees, licked his lips as he stared at the large bulge struggling in its sheath. He knew these jeans, he had taken them off many times and when his fingers found the button it came undone easily for him, just as Isaac was beginning to do.

He had his head back rested against the wall, forehead beading with sweat as Scott took his time.

"_Oh_… seriously Scott what are you doing down there?" Isaac said, his body aching for Scott's hands to reach out and touch him.

Scott just smiled to himself as he pulled the jeans around Isaac's ankles and he kicked them away quickly.

"You're so impatient." He purred.

Isaac let out a low whine as Scott's hands brushed his thighs, fingertips slipping just under the bottom of his boxers. He hooked them in, slowly pulling them down, even the feel of the fabric pulling over him made Isaac's breathing get faster.

It took no time at all before he was kicking them away to join his jeans and his cock was springing to attention, standing erect just inches from Scott's damp lips. Isaac put one hand on the side of Scott's head but he just took him by the wrist again and Isaac stared down at him.

"Why are you stopping?" He asked.

"If I remember correctly I haven't even started yet." Scott said with a smirk.

"Yeah well why have you stopped before you had the chance?"

"I want to hear you beg." He said.

Isaac whimpered. "Really Scott? Can you just please…" He pushed his hips out a little but Scott used his free hand to push them back down.

"That's the spirit."

"You just wait; I am going to fucking _kill_ you when I get down there." He groaned.

Scott chuckled. "Can't wait, but I still don't hear what I want."

He let his tongue brush over one of Isaac's fingers and heard him let out a needy moan. He slowly took it into his mouth, hollowing out his cheeks and swirling his tongue, his eyes staring upwards at Isaac who was biting his lip hard.

"_Fuck_… Scott _please_…" He breathed.

The hand that wasn't being tortured by Scott's mouth was balled into a fist and his hard on was painfully aching as it was being neglected and ignored.

"What do you want? Come on Isaac just tell me." Scott breathed.

"Put your _fucking mouth_ on me… or your hand… or anything just _touch me_… please Scott this is me begging." He whined. "Come on Scott you have no idea how much I want you… how much I need you right now just _please_." He took his free hand and wrapped it around his length for just a moment before Scott was batting it away.

"I didn't say you could do that." He growled.

"Dare you to make me stop." Scott grinned, parting his lips and taking the tip of Isaac's cock in his mouth to which he elicited an electrified groan. "Holy fuck… _yes_…" He breathed as Scott drew back with his lips, slowly at first and then picking up the pace and making Isaac resist the urge to buck into him.

"You know you really do have the dirtiest mouth when you're in the mood." Scott smirked, pulling away only for a second before he was lowering his lips further down Isaac's shaft and this time he didn't resist.

Isaac urged his hips forward and Scott grunted at the quick movement but soon picked up a pace, taking a firm hold of Isaac's ass as he guided his thrusts along with him. Isaac's hands tangled in his hair as he struggled to stay standing.

His loud moans began to get more frantic, the warm feeling building in his stomach and beginning to spread. "Scott…" He breathed.

He pulled his swollen red lips away and stood up, roughly taking Isaac's face in his hands and kissing him wildly. Isaac's shaking hands fumbled with Scott's belt but it was soon enough undone and as he pulled his jeans down Scott tore his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. As Isaac lifted his fingers to unbutton the shirt Scott took his hands and placed them flat against his waist.

"Leave it on." He said huskily.

"You know this thing you have about me in button up shirts is kind of ridiculous." Isaac said, grinning but leaning in to ravish Scott's neck with his lips.

"Oh yeah like your thing for me leaving my jeans on when we have a quick fuck before school isn't?" He smirked.

"Now who's the dirty one?" Isaac moaned into Scott's neck, leaving fading purple bruises that had Scott digging his fingernails into Isaac's skin.

"You _fucking _love it." He said, grabbing him back by the shirt and pushing him to the bed.

As he descended on him he opened the drawer by the bed and pulled out a condom and the familiar cylindrical bottle. Isaac parted his legs to let Scott crawl between them before he poured some of the slippery liquid onto two of his fingers, getting one of Isaac's legs up over his shoulder.

Reaching down his fingers found Isaac's tight hole and slowly rubbed against it, making Isaac grip the sheets tightly. Scott loved watching his body squirm under his hands and gently pushed the end of his finger inside him. He chuckled as Isaac pushed himself back onto him.

"You like that." Scott's voice vibrated in the space between them as Isaac nodded silently.

He added another finger, slowly working him open until his own cock was leaking pre come at the sight before him. He pulled himself away only so that he could slide the condom down over his length, breathing hard as he slicked himself up.

He went to push Isaac's ankle off his shoulder but he stopped him. "Leave it, I can take it." He said breathlessly.

It was enough to make Scott forget about his plan to tease him, the last bit of restraint in his body was used up on trying to ease himself slowly into Isaac, the both of them letting out strangled groans as Scott inched his way inside. Trying not to hurt him he gave slow thrusts as he leant in to meet his lips, kissing him with a closed mouth and his moans still escaping.

He worked his hips faster, switching between quick hard strokes and long drawn out ones that made Isaac's eyes roll back into his head every time. A single curl was painted to his forehead with sweat and his hand gripped the back of Scott's neck as he set fire to every part of his body he touched.

Back to quick strides, Scott rested his elbow in the bed and Isaac groaned as the angle got even better, only just scraping the spot that was begging, mercilessly, for Scott to hit. Scott could feel the pressure building inside him and lifted his body upright, kneeling on the bed and swinging Isaac's other let up onto his shoulder, tilting his hips and thrusting manically.

"Yes…_oh fuck_… _oh god Scott_…" Isaac almost yelled as Scott hit the mark, perfectly and sending waves of pleasure through him with each quick thrust.

He continued to involuntarily moan his name as his orgasm broke, ripping through him and surging through his blood like an inferno. Scott took only a few more strides before he was coming, his knees barely able to hold as his whole body shook. With the waves of pleasure still washing over him, he pulled out of Isaac and collapsed against him, not caring about the warm sticky liquid that had pooled in the lines of Isaac's chest.

He kissed Isaac in a way that was more just the acknowledgement of ones lips against the other for a fleeting moment before he rolled onto his back, panting furiously.

"Shit Isaac… that was…." He panted, unable to even explain how amazing it was.

Isaac chuckled giddily. "Who's Isaac?"

Scott laughed and turned his head to look at him. He reached out to take his hand and Isaac looked over lazily.

"I love you, you know." Scott said softly.

Isaac managed a smirk. "After that, you'd better."

Scott laughed again and wondered how he could top a night like this before realising that as long as Isaac was there, he would.


	15. Chapter 15

Stiles gaped over at Derek as if he'd just got up onto the table and taken his pants off right there and then. Had he heard correctly?

"What?" He choked out in a dry breathless yelp. "Why would you think that?"

Derek tilted his head to the side. "You promised you would tell me the truth." He said

Stiles scoffed a few times, completely taken aback by Derek's question. "Well I would if there was any truth to it. I don't blame myself." He said, feeling a heat wash over him that was making him start to get very uncomfortable.

"Stiles, you talk in your sleep sometimes, and I can tell that you're lying just by listening to your heart. I think you should probably just have a glass of water and relax for a minute because right now it sounds like you're panicking." Derek said, a little worried at the rapid rate that Stiles' heart was beating.

He reached across the table for his glass and knocked it back all in one go, Derek watching him with wide eyes.

"Stiles, I just want to know why you've put that burden on yourself, that's all." He said.

"Me? Well what about you? I know you've put a lot of blame on yourself for things that happened in the past." Stiles said and Derek turned his face away, staring down at the napkin in front of him.

Stiles felt a pang of regret, he hadn't meant to say that, he didn't really want to bring it up. They air hung silently around them and was only broken when the waitress came back with two plates of dessert.

Stiles sighed heavily, relief flooding through him as he started eating, knowing that Derek hated it when he spoke with his mouth full. Derek started eating his own food too, the silence just getting worse.

"I…" He started, Derek looking up expectantly. "I don't really talk in my sleep do I?" He asked.

Derek nodded. "You say a lot of things Stiles. Plus you can't control that thing when you're awake, why would you think you'd be able to when you're asleep?" He pointed to his mouth and Stiles sighed again.

"I don't… I don't blame myself… I mean it's not my fault that she got sick." Derek watched him intently from across the table as he tried to get something out, knowing that hiding things from Derek never worked out well. "She used to get these headaches, I mean they started out pretty random and everything… then they just started happening all the time. My dad wanted her to go to a doctor and make sure everything was alright but uh… well, I had a lot of attention issues and trouble focussing back then. I was probably a terrible child. She helped me with my homework for hours after school, sometimes it would take an hour just to get me to sit down." He swallowed, biting his lip as he remembered back when he was a kid. "So um, my dad would say 'you need to check yourself out, make sure you're okay' and she would tell him that she'd get around to it but she just… I mean dad was working overtime at the precinct and I was more than a handful.

"She spent a lot of time dealing with me and it was years before we got any medication that actually worked so when she finally got time to do something for her…" His eyes dropped and he was back to playing with his leftovers. Derek reached out to touch his hand, stroking it gently because his heart was back to pounding furiously. Stiles shrugged like it wasn't a big deal but he still wouldn't look up at Derek whose eyes had never left the fracturing lines of Stiles' face. "Doctors said it had gone too far or progressed to a stage where they couldn't really do much or something like that and if they'd been able to catch it a few months earlier then maybe the prognosis would be different. I guess my dad looked at me first when we heard and maybe … subconsciously… I thought that maybe he blamed me because I was the one who stopped her from… I mean if she didn't have to deal with a hyperactive kid who was at risk of failing the third grade then maybe… maybe she would have gone earlier."

He shrugged again, his eyes growing glassier with every second he spoke about it. "Yeah, maybe it is my fault."

"Don't say that…" Derek whispered.

Stiles looked up just as a tear came spilling down his cheek and Derek reached up to brush it away. Stiles was trying desperately to stop any more from falling and he chuckled a little to himself.

"God damn it Derek, what did you have to go and ask me something like that for?" He said.

"Same reason you had to go asking all of yours." He gave Stiles a weak smile and nudged his head back a little. "Come here." He whispered.

Stiles got up and rounded the table so that he could squeeze in beside Derek on his side of the booth and Derek lifted his arm so that Stiles could crawl in underneath. He closed his eyes as he heart the faint pattering of Derek's heart and nuzzled in close. Derek kissed his hair and affectionately rubbed his knee with his hand.

It was almost strange that he was being so affectionate in a public place but that was one thing that Stiles was going to keep his mouth shut about; he was enjoying it. He was glad to have stopped their conversation though, and as much as Stiles wanted to know about Derek's time with Laura or his family he wouldn't ask anymore. If Derek wanted to tell him; he would.

There were a few things that he knew would slip out, things that were bugging him about the words that Derek spoke. He might not be able to help them but he had felt that horrible gut-wrenching feeling of answering a question that hurt and parts of him thought that Derek did it purposefully to get him to stop asking questions. Either way, he was going to try and keep his mouth more firmly shut from now on.

Stiles' hand brushed Derek's warm thigh and he said he'd call for the cheque. Soon enough they were hand in hand, walking out to Derek's car and on their way back to the loft. He did everything to lighten the mood, he even threw in a CD and started singing to one of the old nineties songs and had Derek crack a real smile for once.

In the lift, on their way up, Derek pulled him in for a kiss that lasted longer than the ride, neither of them pulling away from the other as they stumbled into the living room and leant against one of the walls.

"You know… you taste like chocolate." Stiles managed to squeeze past Derek's lips.

Derek smiled against Stiles' cheek. "Only this one part of me does Stiles."

"Still… I wouldn't mind tasting the rest." Derek grinned and kissed him again.

That was when they heard the shower taps turn on upstairs and Derek groaned. "Isaac's here." He said.

"I thought he was staying at Scott's tonight. Maybe dinner didn't go so well." He smiled and Derek gave him a look.

"I hope you're not enjoying your thoughts about something bad happening at Scott's place." He said.

"No, but maybe they can't face one another after all the awkwardness." He grinned again.

"You're a bad person." Derek said, peeling his body away from Stiles.

"Am not, other peoples' misfortunes just make me somewhat… amused."

Derek laughed. "Well how about I go get us something to drink and you make yourself comfortable somewhere." He headed back towards the lift.

"Wait you're going _out_ to get something to drink?" Stiles asked.

"A pack of teenage werewolves keeps raiding my stash. So yes, I'm going out to get something." He said.

"Maybe you should find a better hiding place." Stiles teased.

"Shut up, I'll be back in ten minutes." He said with a smile and Stiles shook his head walking over to collapse on the couch.

As far as dates go, it wasn't bad. Then again he doesn't have anything to compare it to. It could probably have done with a little less emotional soul crushing and devastating memories but Stiles had a feeling Derek was going to make up for that now, and with alcohol and sex. Not a bad combination

There was still that one little thing playing on his mind, the one thing he couldn't get out of his head. Derek didn't want a family. He didn't want any of it, not anymore. And that made Stiles a little sad. He thought that maybe it would be something that Derek would want, considering the fact that he was left with nothing, but this way also made sense.

Stiles sighed and looked towards the stairs. He groaned his way off the couch and headed upstairs, taking his time. When he reached the landing he could hear the shower running still, louder than before. He walked up to the door and knocked twice.

"Isaac?" He asked.

"Stiles?" He heard back, muffled from the water and the two inches of door between them.

"Can I ask you something?" He said, waiting for a response.

"Uh… sure, go ahead." He heard, so he opened the door and leant against the frame with his arms folded.

The shower curtain was pulled all the way and the glass was warped enough so that Stiles could only make out part of a blurry figure behind it.

"Do you, I mean do you ever think of the future and stuff?" He asked.

Isaac's sopping wet mop of curly hair stuck to his forehead as he pulled back the curtain to reveal only his head and shoulders.

"What, like college and that?" He said, water drops falling effortlessly from his damp lips.

"Yeah, among other things." Stiles added, hating how perfect Isaac looked on pure principle.

"Well yeah, obviously, why wouldn't I?" He asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"I was just asking." Stiles said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well it's not like I was expecting that as a question, I thought it was going to be something like 'do you know where the last of the Oreos went'." He grinned.

Stiles cursed. "I _knew_ that was you, asshole." Isaac grinned back at him. "Do you ever think of anything other than college?"

"Like what?" He asked and Stiles was about to speak up when Scott's head appeared past the curtain too.

Isaac bit his bottom lip and tried to suppress his amusement as Stiles scrunched up his eyes and turned away from them.

"Nice guys, nice."

"Hey you opened the door. It's not like we were-" Isaac started.

"Do you mean like family and life and stuff? That's what you mean right?" Scott asked.

"Yeah Scott. That's what I meant."

"Oh, well yeah of course I think about it. Why?" Isaac asked.

"Because I was just asking alright? But I'll ask later, sorry for the interruption." Stiles smirked. "I take it there won't be any hot water left for when_ I_ want a shower."

"None, none at all." Scott grinned and Stiles shook his head as he left the bathroom.

"Fucking horndogs. Both of you!" He muttered as he shut the door and headed back out to the living room to wait for Derek.

"That was mean," Isaac said, grinning as Scott took his hand and proceeded to kiss each one of his fingertips. "He sounded like he really wanted to talk about something."

"You're in the shower… and you're not alone either." Scott said, pulling Isaac into his wet body and stroking his arm.

"Still, did something seem off about him?" Isaac asked.

Scott sighed. "Yeah, I know it did but where ever Derek is I'm sure he won't be gone for long and it doesn't seem like he wanted to talk about it with him… so I'll call him in the morning." Scott shrugged, and Isaac knew he was right.

"Fine, I just… I don't know, sometimes I think that Derek would be a horrible person to try and talk to and Stiles is… well, Stiles is…" Isaac said.

Scott reached up to stroke his hair and smiled. "I know, you guys are pretty good friends now huh?"

Isaac nodded. "Not jealous are you?" He added with a smirk.

Scott laughed. "Are you kidding? He's my best friend, you're my boyfriend… if you guys are friends then I am totally stoked, I mean it's like I have two best friends, then if the two of you are close it's like the three of us are best friends." He got this look in his eye and he was slightly distant as a smile crept across his face.

Isaac grinned as he held back his laughter. "You started thinking about that song in the Hangover and then thought about the whole 'wolf-pack' thing didn't you?"

"Yeah." Scott said.

Isaac threw his head back and laughed, sliding his arms around Scott's waist. "You're adorable." He said, kissing him softly on the lips.

"Not exactly what I was going for but I'll take it. Now… can we get back to what we were doing before all that?" He asked.

"You have to ask?" Isaac grinned, slipping his hands down to Scott's ass and giving it a squeeze.

When Derek got back he found Stiles rummaging through the pantry looking for something to eat. After a few moments of teasing he pulled out a bag of potato chips and tossed them to him. It wasn't long before they were settled into the couch, Stiles nuzzling into Derek's side and sharing a bottle of whiskey between them, even though Derek was making sure Stiles couldn't have as much as he wanted.

Occasionally Derek turned up the volume and Stiles had a feeling it was to drown out noises from upstairs. Not that he minded, especially when Derek nuzzled back into him, his stubbled chin tickling his neck… he minded even less so when he pressed his lips to Stiles' mouth and lay him back on the couch, grinding his hips into him and letting his hands roam.

Somehow Stiles felt there were so many things that he needed answering, like one dinner wasn't enough to get everything out. He had so much more he wanted to ask, so much more he wanted to know. Derek was distracting enough in that moment for him to push it to the back of his mind.

Eventually they moved themselves to Derek's bedroom, stumbled is more like it, disturbing the perfectly made sheets and Stiles finally got to find out Derek's favourite thing to do in bed, which he enjoyed, a lot. He was sure that Derek did too because after he gave Stiles a kiss to his temple and pulled him into his arms, holding him a little too tight but he didn't care.

When he finally released him Stiles let out the sigh he had been holding in and just lay awake, his mind ticking over and over. After a long time of just thinking he flicked his eyes to Derek and back to the ceiling again.

"Derek?" Stiles whispered as he lay beside him, unable to sleep and not sure if Derek was the same.

He made a grunting sound in reply and Stiles looked over at him, his eyes were closed and he looked pretty comfortable just lying there naked and covered with a thin sheet.

"Can I ask you something?" He said softly.

"I told you, I'm not answering any more of your questions so your queries about my sex life are going to have to_ remain_ unanswered." He said without opening his eyes.

Stiles chuckled a little. "It's not that."

"Then what is it Stiles?"

He wasn't going to bring up the whole wanting a family thing, but there was something else that he wanted to know, something that related to them _now_, not five or ten years down the track.

"Well… earlier, I mean you said that Peter was different before the fire…"

"He was." Derek said quietly, opening his eyes and staring up at the ceiling.

"All that stuff you said about you guys, about Laura… why did he kill her?" He asked, watching Derek intently.

He sighed and shook his head. "I know what he'd say." He said and Stiles just waited for him to keep going. "Six years, six years it took him to heal himself. Inside out, day after day, one cell at a time – fixing himself, making himself a whole different person. The wolf didn't experience the effects of the moon for so long that when they finally did he couldn't control it and Laura just happened to be the one who got in the way, unavoidably."

"What would you say?"

Derek turned his head to look at Stiles. He didn't seem angry, just thoughtful, like he had thought it all through one hundred times before.

"I would say that the part of him that survived was the animal inside him. It was the instinct to heal, to survive, the only part of him untouched was the basic need to stay alive. The real Peter died in the fire. The wolf survived. Any part of him that was still there was consumed with the agonising pain of being left alone in a dark room for six years. His need to get revenge on the people who put him there just sat and festered all that time, with no other way to release his anger." His eyes had grown distant, Stiles just lay there silently. "So I'd believe him. I'd believe him about the fact that he couldn't control himself on the night of the moon, when Laura went out looking."

"But Derek… he didn't kill Scott."

"That's where I wouldn't believe it. It wasn't unavoidable. Laura was an alpha and the wolf inside Peter wanted to be an alpha more than the man wanted to keep his niece alive. He'd lived without family for long enough. There was only one thing that he had for company all those years that me and Laura stayed away. One thing… and he let himself become more like that than like he had been."

Stiles reached out and let his fingertips graze Derek's cheek. He turned his face to let them brush his lips and he lifted his own hand to link his fingers with Stiles', kissing each one and closing his eyes.

"I can't… I can't talk about this anymore Stiles." He said so softly that Stiles wasn't even sure that he had heard.

"I know, I'm sorry." He said, pulling Derek into him and he willingly curled up in his arms. He buried his head against Stiles' chest and wrapped an arm around his waist as he was soothed by the gentle pounding of his human heartbeat. "Just come here."

Derek's lips placed a soft kiss in the middle of his chest and Stiles ran his fingers through his dark hair, closing his eyes as he felt Derek's slow exhales waving over him.

"I love you Derek." He whispered.

Derek shook his head slowly. "I need you."

"I know. I know." Stiles cooed as he continued to stroke Derek's hair, wanting nothing else but to hold him for as long as he could manage.

As he did all he could to keep him in a state of calm, to make him feel protected, Stiles couldn't help but let the rage well up inside him.

Who could have done something like this to this heart-breakingly beautiful man? Who could have taken from him everything he had and made him broken, a shell of the person he once was? This man who wanted nothing more than to live his life with his family in peace, the man who had such a spark. A spark that was now barely an ember, struggling to stay alive in the dead of night. How could anyone have destroyed such a beautiful creature?

Stiles was never going to know the answer, all he could do was try to piece him back together… without Derek realising that he was trying to fix him. No, that would be something that Derek would hate.

So he kissed his head and held onto him in the way he knew he needed, knowing that in the morning he would pretend that none of these moments ever even happened.


	16. Chapter 16

Merry Christmas (:

Stiles was right, they didn't talk any more about it after that, and it didn't matter. Derek was acting somewhat warmer, he smiled a little more, even if it was only fleeting. It helped that the new pack hadn't posed a threat, though he kept his eyes open and still refused to trust them. He had many arguments with Jackson about what to do with them; one of the twins had sparked a relationship with Danny and Jackson wanted to make sure he wasn't being used as a pawn in some kind of game.

Otherwise the rest of them mostly kept to themselves. Derek only had fleeting moments talking to Katherine, the other alpha, mainly about Peter because he was the only one that Derek's words had no effect on. Daisy, the younger blonde, stayed about as far from their radar as she could, and no one had any arguments for that.

When it came down to it, they were all just happy that there was no killing or maiming, other than the regular human kind. It even gave them enough time to enjoy a quiet Thanksgiving. Scott and Melissa were headed out of town, a long drive out to Phoenix Arizona to spend their time with Melissa's mother and sister and her three kids. Scott had joked about how the only thing worse than dealing with his cousins was having to listen to his mother complaining about his aunt all the way back to California.

Stiles and his father were out on a fishing trip at one of the Sheriff's favourite spots, he had even roped Derek into coming which Stiles had been stoked about until his father made Derek sleep alone in his own tent and Stiles was stuck with his father. Not to mention the way the Sheriff and Derek liked to team up against Stiles because both of them had almost identical views on what was best for him. Most of the trip was them giving Stiles dirty looks out on the lake because the sound of his yammering mouth kept scaring all the fish away. In the end, as much as he complained and whined and pouted, he wouldn't have changed a thing because he even thought he saw Derek smile once or twice.

Erica's extended family all flocked to Beacon Hills for the occasion, one of the few times a year her mother looks up from her writing and sombre glass of wine so she soaked it in for all it was worth.

Boyd and his family did something similar, his older sister was away at college and so they set up a webcam link for their dinner. They all managed a laugh at the way his grandfather kept looking at the screen with her face on, like he didn't trust it one bit.

Lydia and her parents spent a quiet night in, a decadent feast laid out on their table. They all had busy schedules but this was a special occasion so they at least made the effort to sit down together and eat. Though she wished she was anywhere else, 'quiet night in' meant that her parents were either ignoring one another or arguing. They met up at all of Lydia's special events and the way they tolerated one another so very barely had Lydia with no doubts about how much they cared for her, but she just wished they could alternate or do lunch and then dinner so she didn't have to deal with it.

Allison and Chris headed out of town, staying at a nice hotel in the city because this was the first year they would be spending as just the two of them and somehow take-out Chinese in a hotel room was as far from their Thanksgiving traditions as possible and that was exactly how they wanted it.

With Derek away with Stiles and his father and Scott with his family, Isaac was left virtually alone for the holiday. It's not like he had celebrated Thanksgiving a lot with his father but this year he was all alone. That is until Jackson invited him to his parents' party, they hold one every year and his reason for doing so was that there were always too many leftovers and he was sick of his mother complaining about it. The fact that he had mumbled it and avoided eye contact when he invited him just made Isaac start believing that he might actually have had a heart after all. There weren't that many people, it was quite an intimate gathering really but Danny was there with his family so Isaac seemed to stick to him for the night. He was just happy not to be sitting in Derek's cold and sterile loft for the holidays.

But there was still one more to come, the big one, that occasion at the end of the year that everyone waited on. Christmas, and once thanksgiving was over it started to get closer, and fast.

By the end of their classes it had dawned on them all that the big one was on its way and Stiles was going to take advantage of the fact that he had friends and a boyfriend this year. He had so many plans in his eclectic brain that he had to make a list to get them out, and Erica helped him with that, Isaac too. For some reason the three of them were feeling extra festive this year.

The first thing on their holiday agenda, or the 'very werewolf Christmas' as Stiles had labelled it, was cracking Derek. Stiles knew that he played a big role in that step. While everybody had already put up their trees and lights, the loft was as dull and dreary as ever, not a candy cane in sight. So Isaac and Stiles headed to the loft with Scott to convince Derek that a little bit of decoration to get into the festive spirit wouldn't be such a bad thing.

As soon as the three of them showed up Derek knew something was up and rolled his eyes as he walked into the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal and milk.

"So… there's this thing…" Stiles had said.

"What do you want?" Derek said in reply, not missing a beat as he put a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"We were wondering…" Isaac started.

"Hoping!" Stiles added.

"Yeah, hoping, we were hoping you wouldn't be opposed to… maybe putting up a few you know… holiday decorations?" Isaac said as more of a question than Stiles would have liked but they both looked hopefully up at Derek as Scott just laughed.

"So the three of you think that it would be a good idea to put up strands of foil and a big pointed tree with more strands of foil wrapped around it?" He asked flatly.

"I'm just here for moral support, it's those two that thought it would be a good plan. They have a list." Scott said, slightly more amused than he should have been.

Derek gave them both a look as they glowered over at Scott. "It's not so much a list as it is… ideas." Stiles shrugged.

"In list form." Isaac said.

Derek let out a huff and they both knew they were failing miserably. Stiles stepped forward and leant in close to Derek's ear.

"Okay, I know that you're not so fussed on the whole holiday thing because it's two weeks out from Christmas and you don't even have a tree and a whole bunch of other reasons but this place looks like a morgue compared to everything else in this town and I think you need to stop making it look like that on purpose. I know you don't like this stuff but please, it's Christmas, and you don't have to get me anything or even be nice to me in public but please can you try not to be like – the biggest sour wolf ever? Besides, Isaac lives here most of the time and if I have to endure these big plain walls much longer I am totally going to go crazy." He said, and Derek had worried that it was all in one breath and that he was going to pass out. "Come on Derek, you don't have to be miserable. Maybe a little bit of colour in this place will do you some good." He said, looking up at him with his big doe eyes.

Derek groaned and rolled his eyes again. "Fine. But no mistletoe." He said, taking his cereal and walking away from Isaac and Stiles' giddy expressions and Scott's chuckles.

"Why no mistletoe?" Scott said.

"Don't ask!" Derek called with his mouth full as he disappeared up the stairs.

That day he had listened from his room as they left for an hour or so and came back with Boyd and Erica in tow and what sounded like a box of jingling Christmas decorations. He groaned to himself as he thought about his loft – which happened to be exactly the way he liked it – being turned into a pool of sparkling Christmas vomit. And he would refuse to admit that he enjoyed the sound of their laughter from downstairs.

Boyd and Scott had managed to get a tree and carried it back with them, setting it up in the corner by the disused fireplace while Isaac collected wood to put inside it, ready to light and turn the room into a real Christmas scene. Erica and Stiles hung lights up around the window outside and then moved on to lines of twisted green and silver tinsel around the big loft beams.

They had bought some new ornaments and stolen the rest from their various collections at home. As they hung them on the tree, along with more tinsel and the remaining lights they laughed and joked like they were a group of normal teenagers.

Once they had finished they stood around to admire their handiwork and Derek made his way down from upstairs to take a look at the place.

The fairy lights on the tree blinked in a multitude of colours and reflected in the silver tinsel that wrapped around it like a spiral. An odd variety of gaudy baubles hung from its branches, covering most of the green foliage. The rest of the house was filled with tinsel or hanging decorations and there was even a snow globe that Scott had found tucked away in a corner of his attic sitting on the shelf above the fireplace. Overall they looked quite proud of themselves.

Derek took one look and blinked a few times before walking back upstairs without a word.

"I think he likes it." Stiles said with a grin and it was as if he could almost hear Derek's teeth grinding in the distance.

When Christmas was only a week away Erica had the idea that they should all do a Secret Santa because it sounded like a good idea. She first pitched it to Stiles because she knew he would be more likely to convince everyone than she was.

"Plus this way nobody bitches if everyone else gets something at Christmas and they get nothing." She said with a shrug.

For a moment Stiles felt sorry for her because it sounded as though this was something she was familiar with. Then she punched him in the arm and suddenly not so sorry. So Stiles sent a text around to everyone telling them that Secret Santa was not optional and he was sure that they were all reluctant but agreed anyway.

He and Erica wrote all the names down and into a little pouch until everyone made their way to Derek's for a pack meeting, they were back to having them every week or something like that. It was almost like Derek enjoyed spending time with them.

They called Lydia and Allison over too because they were basically members of the pack anyway. Once Derek had finished all the actual pack business Stiles took out his pouch of names and a big grin.

"Okay guys, bag of names, you know what to do. If you get yourself put it back and take another one. And yes, Derek, you have to take one." Stiles said and Derek rolled his eyes at him.

"Come on, it's not that bad. I'll go first." Isaac said, standing up and taking the first name out of the bag.

He made a satisfied face and shoved it into his pocket. "Who's next?"

One by one they took a name and made various faces about it. Erica's eyes gleamed and she shot them all a devious grin after taking hers, Allison's face dropped and she almost seemed to roll her eyes just wishing that she had picked any other name. Scott's face was very much the same as Allison's and Derek – well he was about as far from impressed as you could get.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad guys, seriously." Stiles said. "Stop being such whiner babies."

"So when are we doing this then?" Allison asked.

"Christmas, at some point. Stiles will text you all because he'll remember to do it and I won't." Erica shrugged.

"That was shockingly less than helpful." Lydia said. "Anyway, I have a late hair appointment that I do _not_ want to miss so I think I'm going to get going." She gave a smile to the group as she headed for the door.

Slowly they all gave their reasons and left for the night, leaving just Scott to kiss Isaac goodnight before heading home to finish their own decorating with his mother. Isaac said good night to Derek and Stiles before retreating to his room for the night.

Stiles turned to Derek who was shaking his head. "What? You don't like Secret Santa?"

Derek's stare was blank and unwavering. "Why do you insist on pushing this Christmas thing?"

"Oh come on Derek, is it really that bad?" He asked.

He paused for a moment. "Yes, it is." He said.

"Well, then you're not going to like the next thing that comes out of my mouth." Stiles said sheepishly.

Derek narrowed his eyes. "Why? What do you want?"

"Well… I was kind of thinking… I mean this is kind of the first pack Christmas and why shouldn't we have like a pack Christmas thing, you know like sitting around the tree and doing the Secret Santa thing and eggnog and then there's all the presents you're going to buy me-"

"Oh no, no, no, no." Derek shook his head. "I know what you're going to say and no. Absolutely not."

"Oh come on, please?" Stiles asked. "This place is like a second home to them and I think they would really like to have something here, even if most of them won't admit it."

Derek let out a sigh and folded his arms.

"Derek, you were the one going around collecting misfit toys." He sighed again and Stiles walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking up at him. "I know this is your first Christmas without-"

"Don't." Derek said warningly.

"Okay, then I won't, but maybe think about-"

He was cut off when Derek spun around, cupped his face in his hands and kissed him. He pressed his lips hard against Stiles' mouth, softening as he pressed smaller kisses to hip lips.

"What uh – what was that for?" Stiles asked.

"I love you." Derek said and Stiles chuckled, his forehead leaning against Derek's.

"I love you too, what does that have anything to do with… anything?"

"If you want to do Christmas here then do Christmas here, but don't try to fix me because everyone should be happy during the holidays. I let you decorate the place and now you've roped me into Secret Santa but if you even think about trying to sing carols or making this Christmas some sappy family dinner then you can forget it." Derek said and Stiles nodded.

"Okay then, you promise to at least try and be festive?" Derek narrowed his eyes. "Well do you promise not to be less than festive?" Derek rolled his eyes so Stiles kissed him again. "Thank you."

"You know I hate you for this Secret Santa thing right?" Derek pulled away and gave him a look.

"Oh come on, it can't be as bad as mine, I got Jackson, who did you get?" He asked.

"I think you're missing the point of Secret Santa Stiles." Derek shook his head.

"Yeah maybe. You wanna…?" He pointed upstairs with a devilish grin and Derek chuckled, shaking his head before giving Stiles a shrug and walking past him towards the stairs and up to their bedroom for the night.

Needless to say Isaac had wished that he didn't have super strength hearing that night.

When Scott got home he found his mother hanging stockings over the fireplace. He threw his bag into a chair and smiled.

"I thought stockings were for kids, you know, for Santa to fill with candy and little hot wheels and stuff." He said.

She laughed. "Yeah well maybe this year Santa can just fill them in the week leading up to Christmas." She said as she finished hanging up the third one.

Scott was confused. "You know there's only two of us right? Who's that one for?" He asked.

She looked up as if it were painstakingly obvious. "It's for Isaac." She said.

"Really?"

"Yes really." She said, rolling her eyes playfully at Scott. "I was thinking about it the other day and I guess I felt bad that we didn't invite him to Thanksgiving at my mom's place. I know he doesn't really have anyone anymore and no one should be alone on Christmas so… he has a stocking and he's having breakfast with us on Christmas morning, and maybe _Santa_ will visit him here too." She said.

"Mom, you don't have to-"

"Scott, I know you think I've got all this pent up crap about you and Isaac but the boy is here all the time, he's… well I mean he's sweeter than a puppy dog and he's family. He's _your_ family and anyone who's your family is mine too." She said.

His dopey grin covered his entire face and he walked over to hug her. he wrapped his arms around her and she stroked his hair back to kiss the side of his face.

"Thanks mom."

"Anytime Scott."

"So why haven't you invited Stiles around for Christmas morning before? He's always been like my brother." He said with a smile and she pushed him away to get out her other box of decorations.

"Please, that boy would drive me crazy." She said and they both laughed.

"Well maybe just his dad then." He shrugged.

"Oh-ho! I see what you're doing there, go and get that box will you? We have work to do."

So Stiles sent out the message, 'a Very-Werewolf-Christmas is happening' it had said. After working it all out they figured that they were all free on Christmas night, most of them having breakfast or lunch commitments with their families until the afternoon. The best part about it was that Derek didn't have to feed them all.

Isaac seemed to go all shy when Scott told him about the non-optional Christmas morning at his place, his cheeks flushed scarlet for a long while. He knew that it had just been Isaac and his father the last few years and he didn't think that it would have been much of a holiday for him. This year would be different, Melissa had already gone out and bought him a couple of presents and popped them under the tree.

Meanwhile, Isaac had been helping Scott try to figure out what to buy for his Secret Santa; Scott had pulled Derek's name out of the bag and was not happy about it. Isaac had gotten Boyd and sailed through his shopping, to which Scott envied him.

Erica and Stiles were spending time planning their Christmas dinner, which consisted mainly of chips and booze, in a moderate amount of course. Derek stayed upstairs and away from it all. Mostly he was avoiding the sparkly loft floor below him because he couldn't stand to be in it for too long.

Stiles had invited him to Christmas morning at his place but Derek had insisted that he have the morning with his dad. He protested about that; loudly, just because he knew Derek would be alone in the loft for the most part and in the end they settled on him coming over for lunch as a halfway point.

Still, on Christmas Eve Stiles wouldn't let Derek leave his room until the clock had ticked past twelve and he was able to kiss him on Christmas day. It's not like he didn't enjoy it, but Derek knew Stiles was just trying to convince him to stay all night and into the morning so he kissed him until he was delirious and escaped through the window, but not without an 'I love you'.

When daylight finally broke on Christmas morning Scott and Isaac were snuggled up in Scott's bed, Isaac's arm draped lazily over Scott's bare chest and his hand clinging to Isaac's arm. They were in no hurry to wake up but both of them got a good scare when Melissa banged on the door and told them to get their butts out of bed.

Isaac laughed in his drowsy state, hair a mess and one eye still sealed shut. "She just can't help herself, can she?"

Scott chuckled, staring at Isaac like he was the most beautiful thing in the world. "Guess not." He mumbled, trying to go back to sleep until Isaac threw the covers off him and began getting out of bed himself.

"Come on, before she starts waving around the pots and pans." He said as he stretched and Scott groaned.

"Can't I just stay here all day with you?" He cooed, grabbing Isaac's waist and holding him to the bed.

"Well I don't know about you but this is the first time in a long time that I'm having an actual Christmas so I would like to enjoy it." He said and Scott kissed his side.

"Yeah, I forgot about that, sorry."

"Hey, why are you sorry? This year is going to be the best one yet, and I know exactly what you want but you'll have to wait until tonight." He grinned and Scott laughed out loud.

"Oh come on, we have time." He said wickedly.

"No, we don't, I have presents down there and I'm not going to miss that for anything." He said.

"Oh my god, you're like Harry Potter." Scott grumbled as he tore himself out of bed.

Isaac laughed. "Not quite, and I don't think your mom will have knitted me a sweater either."

"No, that she most definitely will not have done. She doesn't even know how to knit. She gave up when my grandma tried teaching her like ten years ago." He said.

They got themselves dressed and headed downstairs where Melissa was sitting in the couch chair drinking her coffee and reading through an old magazine. "And I thought girls were supposed to take forever to get ready." She said.

Scott rolled his eyes but Isaac just grinned and said 'Merry Christmas' which made Melissa smile. She got up to kiss the both of them on the cheek and asked if they wanted any coffee but they were both already sat on the floor near the tree and she just laughed.

"It's like you're nine years old again. What is it with teenagers and going backwards after they reach a certain age?"

So they each handed out their presents and opened their own in turn. With the look of delight on Isaac's face Scott mouthed a silent thank you to his mother and she smiled as she watched their faces light up, fuelled by one another and she wondered how she ever questioned them. They just made one another so happy and it was true that the three of them were like a family.

Melissa just couldn't leave Isaac out when he had no one else, and her soft spot for Isaac grew every time she saw the pair of them together.

"I know it's not much this year." She said but Scott looked up quickly, shaking his head.

"Mom, it's perfect." He said.

Isaac looked from one to the other, a sweet smile plastered on his face. "Thanks Ms McCall."

"Sweetie you don't need to thank me." She leant over to squeeze his arm.

It's been a long time since Isaac had felt like he had a home but right in that moment, he did.

"Oh come on Derek, you promised." Stiles said as they sat around in the loft waiting for the others to arrive that night.

"I promised some things but I have never promised _that_." He said, arms folded and not budging.

"It's not like I'm asking you to smile or anything, just wear it." Stiles said, holding up the bright green Christmas jumper for Derek to gaze at with disgust.

"No, I'm not wearing it." He said.

"Oh come on, it's sexy." Stiles grinned.

"You know sometimes, I really don't want to know what goes on in that head of yours." Derek said.

"Are you kidding? Anyone else would look like a total D-bag but I just want to see what you look like in it. Please?" He whimpered and Derek sighed, he had promised to be slightly festive.

He snatched the jumper away and pulled his shirt off, over his head and Stiles admired the cut lines of his body. He gave him a dirty glare as he pulled the jumper over his head, the woolly knit surprisingly soft.

"I was totally right, you make anything look sexy." Stiles grinned.

"You know I'm going to kill you, right?" He said but Stiles just sauntered over, giving him a kiss and slipping his out to caress the soft side of Derek's top lip.

Derek instinctively pulled him in closer, deepening their kiss and lifting Stiles off the floor to hold him close.

"As much as I want to do this… the others are going to be here like, now." Stiles purred.

"Well until then, if I have to wear this thing then you can oblige me." Derek growled.

"I will be happy to do it later, more than happy actually." He grinned and as if on cue they heard the lift moving upwards and some of the pack members making their way to the loft for their pack dinner.

Derek grunted but he didn't take of the silly sweater which had patterns knitted into it and simply let Stiles go and wandered into the kitchen.

Scott and Isaac were the first to arrive, both laughing for an extended period of time at Derek before he let out a rather loud growl that had them both biting their lips in silence. Erica was next, followed by Lydia and Jackson and the rest weren't long after. For a while they didn't think that Allison was coming but she made it, last of all.

Stiles had made a little sign for Secret Santa presents and the pile was finally full. If he had been given his way they would have already unwrapped their presents but instead Derek made everyone coffees, silently of course. He was done with saying anything to quell their laugher, the only thing keeping him in the sweater being the smile glued to Stiles' face.

They went through all their mornings and gifts, big like Jackson's new computer or small, like Erica's twenty dollar voucher to a store she never visits, still they all laughed and somehow even though they were a band of misfit toys, Stiles was right; this made up a part of their home.

"Can we do Secret Santa now?" Stiles asked after an hour of sitting around and there were no arguments.

They all flocked to the tree, glimmering with tinsel and flickering lights, taking seats around it as Scott started a fire in the otherwise unused fireplace.

"So how do we do this? Like, open them all at the same time and guess or one by one giving them to the people we bought them for?" Isaac asked and Stiles shrugged.

"How about the first one?" Scott suggested.

Again there were no arguments and Stiles started handing them out to everyone until they all had one.

"Well I think I know who this one came from… the wrapping is perfect." Allison smiled and looked up at Lydia who shrugged.

"I'm not lowering my standards of wrapping to blend in so I guess I'm caught." Lydia shrugged. "Mine on the other hand…" She looked down at her own present that was so raggedly wrapped that the corners were ripping. "Mine is so haphazardly wrapped that it could only have come from Jackson."

He scoffed, but didn't deny it.

"Well go on, open them, don't make me look like the asshole." Stiles said as he started digging into his present.

The rest did the same, not really knowing what to expect. Boyd was reasonably shocked by his set of charcoal pencils and art paper, only knowing of two possible people who could have known about his love of drawing and Erica had already told him who she had picked so he knew it must have been Isaac.

He mumbled a quiet thanks and Isaac shrugged as he finished unwrapping his own gift. Inside a decent sized box was a thirty dollar voucher to the Gap. He looked up to see Allison sighing sheepishly.

"Sorry it's a bit pathetic, I just had no idea what to get you." She said and Isaac's ears went a little pink.

"No, no, it's cool." He said, the awkwardness between the two of them still not fully resolved.

"There's some honeycomb at the bottom, under the tissue paper, I know you like that." She gave him a smile and he nodded, smiling down at the gift.

It might not have been much, but he knew that she had probably thought more about this gift than any other and he was grateful for that.

"Okay, who got me this? Because whoever you are I think I'm going to kiss you right now." Scott said, grinning at the newest instalment of his favourite game as he finished unwrapping it.

"Please don't, I really don't need that much thanks." Boyd said, backing up a little in case he was actually serious.

"Oh, the total series collection of Batman, I wonder who that could be from." Stiles said, grinning over at Erica who looked very pleased with herself.

"Thought you'd like that – ooh!" She squeaked as she opened her box to reveal a stunning leather jacket. "Please don't tell me this was from you?" She looked up at Derek who shrugged. "You have exquisite taste Derek." She grinned, taking it out and inspecting it closely, clearly very impressed.

"You seem to take a liking to things that are mine so I thought I'd put you out of your misery, mostly." He said, muttering the last bit and Stiles held back a laugh.

It was so sexy when Derek labelled him as 'his', which he was so obviously implying with his comment.

"So… this is definitely from Stiles." Jackson said, holding up a set of dog-tags.

"Oh come on, the fact that they're called dog tags just makes it amusing, they're actually engraved with details and stuff… I mean you drive that car of yours like you want to end up halfway around a pole. So just in case."

"You're morbid." Jackson said but gave him a smile anyway.

Lydia had bought Allison a dress she had her eye on, and Jackson just spent extra on a necklace for Lydia because he had ended up with her as a secret Santa anyway.

When they finally got around to Derek it was obvious who it was from, there was only one person left. He opened to box, and under a set of reindeer antlers was an old picture in a frame of him and Laura, back when he was still in high school. He stared down at it, almost lost for words.

"Where the hell did you get this?" He asked.

"I uh, said something to Deaton about needing a gift for you and he went looking through some old file and found this. So technically I was a cheapskate and just bought a frame and some antlers but I swear I thought about this a lot." Derek just looked up, giving Scott a semi-smile before tucking it away so the others wouldn't see.

"Well these would look great on you." Stiles said, taking the antlers and grinning up at Derek.

"Oh no." He said.

Stiles grinned stupidly as he put the antlers on Derek's head, straightening them up and nodding approvingly. As if the green sweater wasn't enough, now he had to suffer through this.

The rest of the pack stifled their laughs, even though they all had some kind of whimsical bauble or hat on, somehow Derek wearing a sweater and reindeer antlers was just so much funnier.

The look of pure and utter hatred on his face just made it even better.

Jackson grinned, "Oh, they're awesome." He said sarcastically, causing Derek to turn to him slowly with a look that could kill.

"Come on Derek, you promised to be festive." Stiles said with a smile, earning a huff and puff as a response. "Besides, I think he looks kind of dashing."

Scott and Isaac looked at one another but surprisingly it was Boyd who said the thing they were both thinking.

"On Dasher, on Dancer…"

"Prancer and Vixen…" Scott added.

"Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen…" Jackson and Isaac sang.

Derek looked like he was about to snap and rip all of their throats out.

"I think you're missing one." Lydia said, biting her lip because she was slightly more fragile than the others.

Erica got up onto her knees and crawled over to Derek, pressing her lips to his nose with a loud kissing sound and pulled away, having left red lipstick marks on the end. "There we go." She said with a smile.

Derek had his eyes scrunched up tight as they had been since the moment Erica's lips had touched him and now they were all in a fit of hysterics. Even Stiles, who was trying so very hard not to had glassy eyes and bouncing shoulders.

"Now this is a Christmas miracle." Jackson laughed and had Derek not made a promise to Stiles he would have leapt up and thrown Jackson into the gaudy flashing tree in the corner. But a promise is a promise, and despite his suffering, the look on Stiles' face was worth it.

"You know maybe we should stop before we have to add 'Slasher' to the list." Boyd said.

"He loves it." Stiles said, kissing his cheek and despite hating it, thoroughly, he did enjoy it.

Isaac leant into Scott's shoulder as they laughed and the fire burned low in the little alcove. This had been his best Christmas in years, spent with friends and his pack. He wouldn't give them up for anything, not anything.

"Merry Christmas everyone." He said softly.

One by one they all said it back, exchanging hugs – except for Derek – and sitting back to enjoy their pack-family Christmas while there was still time, while they were all together, all of them hoping they could just live in that holiday for the rest of the year, and longer.


	17. Chapter 17

By the time it was nearing midnight everyone was exhausted. For the last few hours they had all just sat around the living room chatting, Derek had retired to the couch to read one of his books, piping up from time to time when he had something snide or witty to say.

When he had had enough of their chattering he got up and tossed his book aside, tugging on the top of Stiles' shirt before heading to the stairs.

"Well, I guess that means I'm going to bed." Stiles said with a yawn. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" He said with a grin and everyone let out a loud groan.

"That's original." Erica said, laying back on the floor and closing her eyes.

"You just going to sleep right there are you?" Boyd asked with a smile.

"It's actually more comfortable than you think." She said.

"Do you all mind shutting up now? We're going to try and get some actual sleep." Jackson said as he curled up with Lydia on the couch.

Allison's eyes were looking heavy as she sat on the armchair and she just snuggled in a little deeper while Boyd lay down next to Erica on the floor.

"Yeah, it's not bad." He said with a shrug.

Isaac nudged Scott in the ribs and bobbed his head in the direction of the stairs so they got up and said goodnight to the rest of them, heading the same way as Derek and Stiles who had retreated to the relative sanctuary of Derek's bedroom.

As soon as the door had closed behind them Derek had the antlers crumpled between his fingers and tossed across the room. Stiles chuckled as he pulled the fluffy Santa hat off his head and put it down on the dresser.

"Man, you really hated those things didn't you?" Stiles said with a grin.

"If you ever make me wear something like that again you won't live to see another day." Derek warned, realising he was still wearing the sweater and pulling it violently over his head.

"You're such a sour wolf, come on, try and be merry." Stiles said.

"Don't push me. I have tolerated every-"

"Calm down! Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have forced you into the sweater and the ears and all the rest of it but it was a good night anyway, don't you think?" Stiles asked.

Derek sighed huffily. "It was fine."

"…but?"

"But I'm going to be feeling Erica's lips on my nose for weeks… not to mention this place constantly smells like all the rest of them." He grumbled, unzipping his jeans and kicking them off before climbing into the bed.

"You know, you can complain about it all as much as you like but you always say yes to having them over and almost always join in… anyone looking in at this from the outside would maybe think that you actually liked it this way." Stiles said, the hint of a smile playing at his lips.

He removed the outer layers of his own clothing before crawling in beside Derek who had his arms folded and his eyebrows creased into their usual V shape. Derek just gave him a glare and Stiles shook his head.

"Well either way…" He leant up to kiss Derek's nose. "Thank you for tolerating them, and me, I know you have to tolerate me at these things too."

Derek gave a little roll of his eyes. "Well, that's slightly enjoyable." He muttered.

Stiles grinned. "Yeah?"

"Don't push it."

Stiles laughed before his hands were sliding back and forth on the silky fabric of Derek's boxers and this time Derek's lips twitched with a smile.

"You can't help yourself can you?"

"What? My hands? Oh no, these skinny guys have a mind of their own." He said and Derek laughed before Stiles' tongue was asking permission to slip behind his teeth and he had one leg either side of his hips.

"For a human you do that pretty quickly." Derek teased, his hands looping around Stiles' waist.

"Yeah well for a werewolf you're pretty tame." Stiles said, biting hard at Derek's bottom lip and causing him to wince before letting out a growl low in his throat.

He shoved Stiles onto his back and crawled over him, loving the arrogant smirk on Stiles' face. "You know that if I let myself go wild you won't stand a chance."

"I don't know, you were pretty wild when we first got together, all rough and tough when you wanted me." He grinned.

"If you remember correctly you were also covered in scratches and bruises." Derek said as he looked down at him.

Stiles shrugged. "I didn't care about that; I always just wondered why you stopped."

Derek leant down to whisper in Stiles' ear. "I stopped when I realised that I was starting to care about hurting you. I didn't want to do it anymore."

"Oh come on, I was fine."

"I was holding myself back even then, I can never lose full control with you Stiles. It wouldn't be hard for me to do you some serious damage." He said and Stiles sighed, a little annoyed.

"You don't need to treat me like I'm a fragile human. I mean, I know, I'm kind of _the_ fragile human in this weirdo pack but a few scratches aren't going to kill me. I _know _you wouldn't do anything to hurt me." He said, looking up at Derek and wrapping his arms around him.

"Not intentionally, but if I let myself lose control then it might not be by choice. Scott tried to kill you once, remember?"

Stiles groaned, and not in the good way. "Can we not talk about him while we're mostly naked in bed please?"

Derek laughed. "You want me to distract you from that?" He purred.

"Please do, like, _really_ please do." He said.

"Okay… answer me this…" Derek said as he leant down to suck gently on Stiles' earlobe. "One…" He pulled back and moved his head to the other side, sliding his tongue along the inside of Stiles' jawline. "Or two?"

Stiles smiled. "One." He replied.

Derek inched himself further down, placing a soft kiss to one of his nipples. "One…" He turned his head to kiss the other. "Or two?"

Stiles had his eyes closed but pulled a thinking face. "Uh… two." He said with a smile.

Derek inched himself down again. "One…" He said as he dragged his fingertips over Stiles' chest and down his stomach. "Or two?" He asked while he stroked Stiles' thighs with his palms.

Stiles let out a contented sigh, "two." He said softly and Derek caught his fingers in the hem of his boxers, pulling them down to reveal Stiles' already hard member beneath them.

As he pulled them down his legs and over his ankles he watched Stiles bite his lip and exhale heavily, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

"Shut up Derek." Stiles mumbled.

"_One_…" He said, his lips finding the head of Stiles' cock and taking it between them, his tongue lashing over the moist tip.

"One… yes, definitely one…" Stiles groaned, not even caring what two was going to be.

Derek just looked up at him and shook his head. "I'm not done." He said. "One…" He repeated as his tongue went back to its merciless tormenting, sliding all the way down Stiles' shaft and back up until he was taking most of his length into his mouth.

Stiles let out ecstatic moans and gave a few light jerks of his hips, making Derek smirk through his actions. When he pulled his mouth away and Stiles was left cold and wanting more Derek quickly took his hips and rolled him over, holding him up so that he was on his knees.

"Or two…" Derek said with a growl as he ran his tongue over Stiles' puckered hole and making him sigh loudly.

"Two… oh yeah, two…" Stiles mumbled without breath as Derek lapped him softly, swirling his tongue around him and plunging it inside him with force.

The feeling of Derek's tongue inside him, hot and not quite filling enough, made him hungry for more of him, to be filled completely by Derek and to feel his hips bracing against him.

"Or one, or both… _fuck_…" Stiles grunted as Derek gave one last flick of his tongue before pulling himself back and sliding a finger inside him, curling it just enough to make him squirm beneath him. "_Oh yeah_, more Derek… _please_…" He begged, pushing back and making Derek laugh.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're far too eager?" Derek hummed.

"You're just as easy as I am…"

"I said eager Stiles, not easy." He smiled. "But I'm not going to disagree with it."

"Shut up and give me something worth bragging about." Derek laughed again and added a second finger, making Stiles groan again.

He worked him open slowly, reaching over to breathe heavily in Stiles' ear, letting out the occasional moan that had Stiles biting at his lip and gripping even tighter to the sheets. His fingers reached just deep enough to pay close attention to his weak spot and when he found it he repeatedly pushed against it, leaving Stiles a mess and at his mercy.

"Yeah… yeah Derek that's it… right _there_…" His breathing grew shallow and escaped in strangled grunts as he felt the pressure inside of him building, his crescendo so close it was almost upon him … when Derek stopped moving and removed his fingers with a cruel laugh.

The pressure Stiles had felt began to sink back inside him and he whimpered as his frustration began building instead.

"That…" Derek whispered into his ear, "… was for the _sweater_."

"Oh come on you can't do that… that's just pure evil." Stiles said, shoving Derek back and collapsing onto his stomach.

"Maybe you'll think twice about putting me in a festive sweater next time." Derek said.

"Never, you'll be on me again in two minutes tops." Stiles chuckled.

Derek scoffed at him. "You want to bet?"

"As I recall we did have a bet to that nature… and I won if I remember correctly." Stiles said.

"Don't push it." Derek said, remembering that the bet ended with a rather explosive argument and did not leave Derek in a very hospitable mood.

"So why don't you push it, huh? Asshole." Stiles grunted and Derek laughed.

"I had to pay you back somehow."

"Well find another way!"

Derek turned away, pretending that he wasn't grinning madly at the frustration in Stiles' voice. He shrugged and turned back to him.

"Fine." He said, grabbing Stiles' shoulder and flipping him flat on his back and swiping his hand down over his stomach and leant in to pull the head of his cock into his mouth and taking all of him in.

"Holy-" Stiles said in a sharp inhale and threw his head back as Derek's relentless tongue circled and swiped and his cheeks hollowed with perfection.

Derek's hands reached underneath him to cup his ass and pull him in deeper, making Stiles squirm and the sweat began to bead on his forehead. He switched between long slow strokes that made Stiles' head spin and the quick pull of his lips that had his stomach tightening and his jaw going rigid.

Derek could feel the tension building inside him and smiled, bringing him once again to the point of release and pulling back just in time. Stiles let out a pained whine and huffed loudly as Derek sat back against the bed frame with a smile.

"And _that_ was for the antlers." He said, slightly out of breath and his lips red from their exhausting efforts.

"This is _not _funny Derek Hale." Stiles said.

"I think it's well deserved actually."

"You know one of these days I am going to… I swear you are going to pay…" Stiles said, sitting up beside him and glaring at him.

"Oh I'm going to pay am I?" Derek asked, still smiling.

"Yeah, you're going to pay."

"What are you going to do?" Derek challenged and Stiles just narrowed his eyes before lunging at him, tackling him down.

Derek laughed as he tried to win this little wrestling match. Of course he never would on raw strength but his determination was impressive so Derek let him pin him to the wall, his hot breath fanning the side of his face as his lips drew closer to Derek's ear.

"Shut up and listen; I'm going to fuck you right now, I'm going to fuck you so hard it hurts and I'm not taking no for an answer." He growled, his body through with Derek's teasing.

"What are you waiting for then? Fuck me." Derek said submissively, reaching over to the side of the bed to hand Stiles the bottle of lube.

Stiles growled as he slicked himself up, Derek pulling his boxers down to sit around his knees, and aligned himself perfectly as he forced himself all the way into Derek in one go, making him let out a loud yelp.

It didn't seem to deter him though, lifting his body back up so that Stiles could ram his hips back into him again and again. He was sure that if Derek was human he would definitely be bruised but if there's one good thing about dating a werewolf it's that you can be as rough as you like and you still won't leave a scratch, not to mention Derek seems to enjoy it, like, _a lot_.

Derek's hands braced against the wall as Stiles held one hand firmly on Derek's hip and the other snaked up to entangle with Derek's fingers. Derek let his other hand pull away from the wall, reaching back to hold onto Stiles' waist.

Stiles was in ecstasy at even just the slightest touch from Derek and he let out a breathy moan. "Damn it if I don't love you Derek fucking Hale." He said, his breath getting louder with each thrust of his hips.

"You really do have a name kink thing going on don't you?" Derek laughed, his eyes closed and lips suspended in a perpetual part.

Stiles growled a little. "Only yours."

"Good," Derek said, "Keep it that way."

Scott and Isaac had rushed up the stairs not too long after the other pair, hands entwined and smiles impossible to remove from their faces. They paused at Isaac's door and Scott gave him a quizzical look.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Just, give me a second." Isaac said, sliding in through the door and shutting it back in Scott's face.

He chuckled as he heard him moving things around inside before opening up the door again to let him in.

"You know, you can be a little weird sometimes." Scott chuckled and Isaac rolled his eyes.

"It's part of my charm." He grabbed Scott by the wrist and pulled him into the room, stealing a kiss as he passed him.

Scott smiled as he looked at the layout of blankets and pillows on the floor by a couple of lanterns against the wall. He shook his head as Isaac collapsed down into the middle of it all and patted the empty space beside him.

Scott knelt down and crawled over to Isaac, ducking his head down and kissing him softly. He ran his tongue over Isaac's lips, his eyes closed as he savoured the touch, the taste, everything about Isaac in that moment.

Isaac's entire body hummed in reply, his own tongue stretching out to meet Scott's, pulling their mouths in together and making the both of them sigh. When they finally broke Scott made himself comfortable, lying on his side and propped up on his elbow so he could see the beautiful lines of Isaac's face as he held his hand.

"What's with the lanterns?" He asked with a smile and Isaac shrugged.

"We don't have a fireplace, candles would be a bad idea, and even when the pack isn't here I don't think Derek would appreciate us … _cuddling_… like this downstairs by the actual fire." He said. "He sure as hell didn't appreciate it when I walked in on him and Stiles-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Not information I need to hear!" Scott laughed.

"Sorry, sorry." Isaac said, closing his eyes tight and wishing that he could get _that_ image out of his head.

"So…" Scott said softly, "Was this the best Christmas ever or what?" He smiled.

Isaac nodded. "I can say that honestly, yeah, yeah it was." Especially considering the last few years Christmas hasn't really existed in his house.

Scott looked guilty for asking, only thinking about how terrible his father was to him after the words left his lips. "I uh-"

"No, don't be sorry. What could you possibly have to be sorry about? I just said this was the best Christmas ever." Isaac said, smiling gently and stroking the soft skin on Scott's cheek. "I mean sure… I miss my dad sometimes, he wasn't always an asshole."

"What… I mean when did…" Scott started, the words only a whisper leaving his lips.

"It's okay," Isaac assured him. As much as it hurt to think about his father, to talk about him, he had been building up the nerve to talk to Scott about him for a long while now. "It was after my mom left us, right after he got me out of foster care."

"You never really explained that whole thing." Scott said.

"Well, my mom left us when I was about ten or eleven, I think, my brother was already away and she used to drop me off at school. One day she uh… she never showed up after the final bell." He nodded to himself, his eyes looking down and away from Scott's, who was silently transfixed. "It was something like seven o'clock before I made it home. I waited for a while but she never showed so I had to walk. When I got home dad was tearing through the whole house trying to find any hint to why she left but she'd cleared out all her stuff.

"He started yelling things like 'what did you do' and 'why is she gone, tell me, tell me' and I didn't even know that she had gone until he sort of… _screamed_ in my face 'the bitch is gone and she's not coming back so shut up' and I guess I had never seen him so mad and I hid in my room the rest of the night. I didn't know what he was going to do, all I heard was slamming doors and cursing and crying. I couldn't call my brother because I didn't know the number and dad had the phone anyway.

"The next day he apologised and hugged me and said he was going to find her and dropped me off with this old woman who used to babysit me. When he wasn't back that night and she couldn't contact him she got worried, and a week later he wasn't back so I was put with a foster family while the state tried to track him down. That's where I met Cassie; she was one of their permanent foster kids. She was a couple years older than me and I guess she liked to play mom for a while." He smiled to himself, one of the few cheerful memories from that time. "When they got my dad back he had to go through the courts to get me back and they were sympathetic because he was looking for his wife and… well the rest of it doesn't matter. After that is when he started to get angry at me, I think he blamed me for her leaving. Then my brother stopped calling for some reason, I mean maybe it was because my dad refused to let him talk to me, I don't know, I never caught the whole story, and eventually he stopped trying. I don't think he ever knew about what dad used to do to me. I was almost fourteen when we got the call… we hadn't talked to him in two years and I hadn't seen him since before mom left, he kept extending his deployment.

"Dad got a lot worse after that. He needed my grades to be perfect, made me work the graveyard shift… literally… and basically tried to get me to 'do some damn good' and told me 'not to piss away my life doing nothing because that juts wasn't going to be good enough'. Maybe it was the whole losing his wife and then his son… I don't know.

"Either way, it doesn't really matter now. Let's hope dying early doesn't run in my family." He joked morbidly.

"Hey, don't say that. Besides, you know what you're up against now, and your mom didn't die." Scott said.

"She might as well have." He said coldly. "I never even… I mean I don't know what…" He shrugged and sighed before turning his eyes back up to rest in the gorgeous brown of Scott's.

"Well it's her loss." He smiled, trying to make things a little better.

"Damn right it is." Isaac smiled, the thoughts slowly weaving out of his mind.

"I uh… I have something for you." Scot said with a smile, trying to deflect the dampened mood.

"You didn't have to get me anything." Isaac said, unable to hide his growing grin.

Scott squirmed about trying to pull a little wrapped box out of his pocket. "Here." He said, handing it to Isaac.

"How did you keep this hidden in there all night?" He laughed.

"Just shut up and open it." Scott said.

Isaac slowly picked at the wrapping, doing it just so to annoy Scott before pulling it all off and tossing it aside to reveal a small black box. "It's not a ring is it?" He said with a smile.

"_Shut up_ and open it." Scott said again, ears going slightly pink.

As he pushed the box lid up his face dropped all expression and he knew that Scott could hear his heartbeat getting faster.

"So what do you think?" Scott asked, biting his lip.

"I… uh…" Isaac said, completely lost for words.

Inside the box was a small silver key, and he didn't need to ask to know what it was for. It was the key to Scott's front door. It's funny how such a tiny little key could have such a big meaning.

"I know it's stupid, I mean you never even use the door anyway and it's more just a gesture thing but-" He was cut off when Isaac slammed his lips into his, scooting closer and just breathing in everything that was Scott.

"It's the most perfect gift I have ever been given, like, better than my batman suit when I was six." Isaac said and Scott laughed and kissed him again.

"What are you doing?" He asked as Isaac began furiously tugging at his clothes.

"What does it look like? I'm getting rid of all these clothes and I'm going to let you do anything you want to me and then I'm going to let you do it again and again and basically I'm your bitch from now until the New Year." Scott laughed again but didn't complain.

"Speaking of, what are we doing for New Years?" Scott asked, pulling his jeans off and kicking them away.

Isaac gave him a cheeky smile as he pressed his naked body into Scott. "Well me and Erica were thinking of going to this rave happening at an old warehouse."

"Remember the last time we went to a rave?" Scott said, raising an eyebrow.

"It's okay, I promise this time I won't kiss Erica… or Jackson." He grinned again.

"You better fucking not." Scott laughed as he made good on Isaac's word to do with him as he pleased.


	18. Chapter 18

_New Year's Eve_

"So how exactly did you find out about this thing anyway?" Scott asked as he and Isaac walked down the deserted streets to the old warehouse.

Isaac shrugged. "Erica." He said simply and Scott shook his head.

"Okay, where did _she _find out?" He asked again and once more Isaac shrugged.

"I don't know, she's good like that."

"So do you know who else is coming yet?"

"Uh, I think so. I know Stiles is bringing Erica and Boyd with him-"

"No Derek?" Scott asked with a raised brow, knowing that this was the last place that he would want to be.

"Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure his exact words were 'not even if it kills me'. He's such a grump sometimes." Isaac said, smiling.

"What is it that Stiles calls him?" Scott asked.

"Sour wolf or something like that. It fits, I'll give him that. You would have thought having a pack and things going reasonably well would cheer him up."

"I think he just likes moping around, it keeps everyone at a distance."

"Mostly." Isaac snorted. "It doesn't stop Erica, or me for that matter."

"The other pack could still be playing on his mind, I mean I know they haven't done anything yet but still." Scott said as they rounded a corner onto yet another quiet street.

"Yeah… Oh, I also know that Jackson is going tonight." Isaac said.

"What about Lydia?"

"I don't know, I only know Jackson is going because Danny is taking his new boyfriend."

"Danny has a boyfriend? And why would that give Jackson a reason to go?" Scott asked.

"Because Danny's boyfriend is Ethan." He said, not looking up at Scott's shocked face.

"What? Ethan as in one of the twins from that other pack? That Ethan?" He asked, stopping in his tracks.

Isaac sighed. "Yes, that Ethan."

"What is he doing with Danny?"

Isaac almost laughed. "Same thing that you do with me." He offered and Scott rolled his eyes.

"You're hilarious. You know what I mean; why Danny?" Scott said.

"Maybe because he likes him, I don't know. They haven't really posed much of a threat since they got here you know."

"Still, I get why Jackson would be worried." Scott said, worry lines creasing his forehead.

"Would you stop? It will be fine. I've seen them around school and Ethan seems to really like Danny, why would he hurt him?"

"Good question."

Isaac sighed and they kept walking. "Come on, let's just get there and you can confer with Jackson all you like."

"Not jealous are you?" Scott teased.

"Shut up." Isaac rolled his eyes as they walked a few more blocks, the muffled sound of music only just being picked up by their werewolf ears.

"You think we should tell Derek about this whole Ethan and Danny thing?" He asked and Isaac groaned.

"Only if you want him to roll his eyes and walk away. Danny isn't a member of his pack so he doesn't concern him, trust me, Jackson has been over so many times trying to get Derek to do something about it because he doesn't trust the other pack. I mean, Derek doesn't either but he can't be trying to protect everyone. I guess in his eyes Danny is a better sacrifice than one of us."

"Dude, that's horrible." Scott said.

Isaac sighed. "Maybe but I kind of get why Derek isn't doing anything."

Scott just gave him a horrified look and Isaac shrugged. Derek couldn't be expected to try and protect everyone. His main priority was to his pack and if he showed the other pack that there were even more people that he cared about – or at least that mattered to his pack – it would mean more ways for them to get to him if they wanted to. If Danny was in some real danger Isaac knew that Derek would do something. At least, he hoped.

"Look, you can't protect everyone Scott." He said.

"Well someone has to try." Scott replied, vowing to himself that he would keep an eye on Ethan, even if Derek wasn't.

They reached the old run down warehouse and stopped at the door, a few people walking in from the shadowy lanes with big smiles on their faces.

"You ready then?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with." Scott said with a grin.

"Come on, come on!" Stiles called as he stood outside Erica's house, leaning on his jeep while Boyd waited in the passenger side.

He was a little cramped and looked slightly annoyed but still he sat there quietly while they waited.

"Can you believe it? How long does it take to get ready for a rave for god's sake?" Stiles muttered.

"Told you we had time." Boyd said from the car.

"Yeah but seriously it's going to be next year before we even get there." Stiles said, tapping his foot and checking his watch again.

It was less than a minute before Erica opened the front door and closed it behind her. "Night mom!" She called in a sing song voice, knowing that her mother didn't really hear her.

She held her new leather jacket in one hand and her purse in the other as she scampered effortlessly down the porch steps in heels that had to be larger than six inches high. She wore tight black liquid-look leggings and a black singlet.

"I thought I called shotgun!" She said to Boyd who just shook his head.

"I don't care if we have to strap you to the roof racks, you're getting in that car now." Stiles said as he opened his door to get inside.

Erica rolled her eyes but opened Boyd's door anyway, climbing over him and into the back, using both their shoulders for support.

"Do you have to do that?" Boyd asked, a smile warming his features.

She raised an eyebrow. "Obviously. Now hurry up, we're going to be late."

Stiles just spun around, his eye twitching as she laughed.

They drove down to the warehouse, parking a while up the street because if the place got raided they didn't want to be caught at the scene of the crime. Stiles felt like he had shrunk a few inches as he walked beside Boyd and Erica in her giant shoes but still he was excited for the night ahead. He was slightly disappointed that Derek had refused to come but as far as he knew he had Lydia and Erica to waste his time with and so long as he didn't kiss either of them at midnight everything would be fine.

When they arrived Scott and Isaac were already there, standing around by the lights while Scott scanned the room.

"Hey! What's with him?" Stiles said to Isaac.

"He's looking for Danny." Isaac said, like they'd already exhausted that conversation between themselves.

Stiles just gave Boyd and Erica a look which they returned with shrugs. Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Look, I see Jackson, how about we let him worry about Danny and go dance… or maybe we can get a drink from the back." He said, tugging on Scott's sleeve and pulling puppy-dog eyes.

Scott sighed and took his hand. "We'll see you guys in a bit."

Stiles waved a little and looked around for Jackson, spotting him walking towards them with Lydia and Allison beside him. As soon as he got close to them he spoke up, earning a groan from the three of them.

"Has anyone seen Danny?"

"Oh my god, seriously? Is everyone in love with Danny or something?" Erica said.

"Just the people who _really_ shouldn't be." Jackson said arrogantly.

"What do you mean?" Boyd asked.

"He's worried about Danny dating one of the hot twins from that other pack." Lydia said with her lips pursed.

"Oh god, poor Danny." Erica said sarcastically. "I bet it's so awful getting screwed by an attractive guy."

"Uh, trust me… it's not always what it's cracked up to be." Lydia said, putting a hand up to Erica who folded her arms and gave Jackson a smug grin.

"Maybe not for you." Stiles said, eyebrows waggling madly.

Boyd rolled his eyes but laughed and Allison just shook her head with a smile.

"Can everyone please shut up?" Jackson growled.

"Wow, happy new year guys." Stiles said.

"Maybe it's not even that bad." Erica said. "You know, the Danny thing, not the sleeping with a hot guy thing."

"We don't know them and he took an instant liking to Danny. I'm telling you; something's going on here." Jackson said.

"I have to admit, when it comes to werewolves there aren't many coincidences. At least not in my experience." Allison offered.

"Can we please just… go find a drink or something?" Lydia said. "We can take turns babysitting Danny and his boyfriend after that if it will make you feel better." She hissed up at Jackson.

"Yes, drinks, _please_ let's do that." Stiles said. "I promise I will go and sit right next to Danny and his boyfriend if we can just have a tiny little amount of fun tonight. Come on, it's freaking New Year's."

"As much as I hate agreeing with him… I do." Lydia said.

"Hey, not arguing there, where's the bottle at?" Jackson asked, slinging an arm around Lydia's shoulders as they headed around the back to meet Isaac and Scott.

Derek sat in his quiet loft, reading one of the books on his shelf that was long overdue a good flick through. Stiles had moped around all day trying to convince him to go out that night but he wasn't having any of it. A rave sounded like the worst punishment he could imagine. He'd been to his fair share once and he didn't plan on dredging up those memories.

After hours of peace he heard footsteps approaching downstairs, only a single pair, and they made their way into the elevator. Almost as soon as they had begun their ascent did he know who it was, their scent filling the air.

He snapped his book shut and tossed it aside. He stood to face the doors square on and folded his arms as they slowly drew open.

"What do you want?" He asked harshly.

"Must you always greet me so coldly?" Peter asked, a hurt look flashing upon his features.

"You usually bring bad news or cause trouble."

"Now that's not always true." He said, walking into the loft and taking a comfortable seat on the couch where Derek had just been.

"Prove me wrong, and I might even smile." Derek said, face as stern as ever.

"Okay, now you're just going too far."

"What do you want?" Derek asked.

"You know, I had hoped that one day you would find it in your heart to forgive me for all the sins of my past." He said, the look in his eye could almost be considered sincere.

Almost.

Derek just raised an eyebrow at him and Peter sighed. "Fine. I'm here because I think we should revaluate the situation with the other pack."

Derek shook his head and turned to walk into the kitchen. "We've already had this discussion. I have no reason to suspect them of anything."

"They're nomads Derek. Do you know what the word 'nomad' means?" Peter said, calling over to him as he poured himself a glass of water.

"Yes but I don't doubt that you're going to tell me anyway." He said.

"A nomad is a person who has no home, who lives in no place for too long. They travel around and never settle." He said, following Derek and leaning his hands on the bench.

"What is your point?"

"My point is that she labelled _herself_ as a nomad."

"That still doesn't explain anything." Derek said, annoyed.

"Why would a nomad make camp and send those betas to school? What if there's something that they want from here before they can leave?" Peter said.

Derek thought for a moment, knowing that it was a possibility but not knowing what they could actually want from Beacon Hills.

"And what would that something be?"

"Well… that's where my theory cuts out." Peter said and Derek rolled his eyes.

"Do you at least have a way to figure that out?" Derek asked.

Peter smiled. "Now that… I do."

Boyd stood to the edge of the crowd, watching the people bump and grind, faces glowing with iridescent paint and wrists illuminated with glow sticks. He chuckled to himself as he watched Stiles enjoying himself – far too much – as he danced with Erica and Allison. He could see Scott and Isaac dancing to one side, their eyes locked together in a way that made Boyd uncomfortable to look at for too long.

He was too busy observing and letting the music overtake his senses that he didn't notice the small unimposing figure creeping up on him.

"Do you like to watch?" She asked, making Boyd turn around to see the shape in the shadows.

"Do I like to watch what?" He asked back.

"Just watch?" She said. "Rather than join in, you like to watch."

Boyd just looked at her strangely. "Well, I'm not much of a dancer." He heard her let out a quiet giggle before stepping into the light from the flashing strobes.

"I like to watch too, not that I can't dance." She smiled, her blonde hair falling loosely beside her face and her eyes shining a very golden yellow.

"You… you're Daisy, aren't you?" Boyd asked, his eyes flashing yellow right back at her.

"So you do recognise me." She said with a smile.

"Not when you were standing in the shadows, but now." He said, turning back to look out at his friends dancing and laughing out on the floor.

"You seem so different to them." Daisy said.

He turned back to eye her curiously. "Different how?"

"Different as in, not quite the same." She smiled and Boyd chuckled.

"Well that narrows it down."

"I'm different too."

He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you ever feel out of place?" She asked, walking slowly around to lean on a steel pillar just in front of him, staring out over the dancers.

He watched her for a moment, listening to her heart beat slowly amid the frantic beat of the music. "Sometimes, don't we all?"

Daisy looked up at him, her wavy blonde hair so silky and her rosy cheeks still visible in the strobe lights. Her eyes were back to their pale grey-blue and yet still shining.

"We don't have to." She said softly. "Did you want to take a walk outside? In the quiet." She added with a smile.

Boyd looked out to the crowd, to his friends, before looking back to Daisy with a nod. "Yeah, I do."

She set off on her feet to the exit and Boyd followed her, slipping past the others quietly and without notice.

"Do you get the feeling we're being watched?" Ethan said, his arms wrapped around Danny's waist as the two of them moved their hips to the bass, hips that were pressed firmly against one another.

Danny laughed, "That's just Jackson," He looked up from under his eyes to see his best friend glaring over at them.

"Is he your ex?"

Danny let out a laugh that rivalled the volume of the music. "God, no… _never_… he's my friend and he can be a little…"

"Intensely creepy?" Ethan said with a smile.

"I was going to say overly protective." He shook his head.

"Does he really think I would do anything to hurt you?" Ethan asked, his arms tightening around him.

"Of course not, he's just seen me go through some bad break-ups. He's seen me get hurt before and he's doing what any good friend would do." Danny said.

"Still… he's totally creeping me out." Ethan smiled.

"Don't worry, he doesn't watch us all the time." Danny slipped his hands up around Ethan's neck and pulled his lips towards him.

Their bodies stilled as their tongues clashed and their lips fought one another and pulled one another back. Danny felt that spark in his blood and the heat running through him until they parted.

"We should get away from here, you and me, I can take you somewhere that we won't be spied on." Ethan said, leaning his head on Danny's and closing his eyes.

"Sometimes I think that might be a good plan."

"So promise me?" Ethan whispered.

"Right now I would promise you anything." Danny said back, a distant growl lost on his human ears.

Ethan smiled, not only at the look of adoration but at the annoyance in that growl that had escaped from Jackson's lips.

The beat surged through the night, the crowded room a buzzing blur of noise and laughter and flashing lights to break the darkness apart. Isaac pulled on Scott's hand as they headed to the edge of the dance floor, sweating and in need of a break from their feet before the ringing in of the New Year.

They headed toward Jackson and Lydia who were held in a close embrace to the side of the people.

"What's the time?" Isaac asked as he grabbed a cup from the bench beside Lydia and downed it in one.

"Impatient are you?" Jackson asked, his hands on Lydia's waist.

"What? For time to tick on and on? No, not really." He shrugged with a smile.

"Anyone ever told you that you're weird?" Jackson said.

"You, all the time." Jackson rolled his eyes. "Still, I'm not staring off at Danny every five minutes."

Scott bit his lip as he stifled a thought, he knew Isaac had seen him keeping a close eye on the pair too but didn't want to defend Jackson, not right at that moment at least.

"Anyone seen the others?" Lydia said, knowing that this was not a conversation she was interested in having again.

"Stiles is entertaining both Allison and Erica-"

"The first and last time he'll ever please two women at once." Jackson smirked.

"Better to please two for a fleeting moment than to fail at pleasing one for longer." Lydia said, her smirk just as harsh as his.

Jackson scoffed, "Please, don't pretend you're difficult to please."

Lydia shrugged and Scott let out a laugh. "Okay, getting way too intimate for my liking." He said.

"Where's Boyd?" Isaac asked, scanning the room.

"I haven't seen him in a while. He said he'd be back at midnight though, I think Erica has him strapped down for her midnight kiss if she can't find any other victims." Jackson said.

"Who are we talking about now?" Erica asked as the three of them came bouncing over, Stiles' head bobbing along to the music.

Scott smiled at him in his usual goofy way. "Dude, how much have you had to drink?"

"Shut up I love this song." He said and the rest of them snickered a little.

"It's not even really a song-" Scott started.

"Hey, leave him alone, he's tearing it up out there." Allison said, her smile beaming.

"Derek eat your heart out." He said with a bump to Allison's hip which she returned.

"You know it's totally weird but I'm actually having a good time." She said, raising her voice over the music.

"Hey, where's Boyd?" Erica asked.

"We've been through this." Jackson grumbled, taking another not so secret look around for Danny and his date.

"Oh my – would you stop with the staking for five seconds? Put your hands on me and let's go dance. It'll be midnight in ten minutes and I don't want to start the New Year without a bang." Lydia said, grabbing Jackson's wrist sharply before pulling him to the dance floor.

"That was… probably not something I needed to hear." Allison said, smiling.

"Come on Isaac, let's dance before Scott steals you away for the rest of the night." Erica said, grabbing him by the pocket of his shirt – a black button up – and dragging him away to dance near Lydia and Jackson.

Scott and Allison just looked at one another, the awkwardness was still there but they had also managed to put most of their tension behind them. Scott hoped that maybe they could work their way up to being something close to friends again.

"Oh for god's sake, would the two of you just go off and dance already? I'll just hang out here until midnight comes in which case I'll ruin all of your moments of romantic fun out there." Stiles said.

Scott shook his head and he and Allison shrugged at one another before following the lead of the others. It was nice to see her smiling again, not to mention Isaac was extra affectionate when he got jealous.

Stiles kept dancing as he stood on the edge of the crowd. He looked around for Boyd but couldn't see him anywhere. All of his friends seemed to be enjoying themselves, the only thing missing was –

"If we're going to dance the time is now." He smiled a larger smile than he had all night as he turned around to see Derek standing behind him.

"You love to make an entrance don't you?" He grinned, throwing himself into Derek's arms.

"Well someone had to show up to make sure you weren't kissing dangerous strangers." He said with a smile.

"What? Erica's a stranger now?" He winked.

Derek growled and Stiles laughed as he tugged at him to join the others.

"Okay! Okay, I'm sorry. Just – dance with me." He grinned and Derek rolled his eyes with a smile on his lips.

For once he actually managed to sway his hips a little and seemed to be having fun, even if his eyes never left Stiles who had to keep looking away because he was blushing, but that could have been more to do with the alcohol that he had consumed over the course of the night.

The DJ called one minute to midnight and Allison gave Scott a shove in Isaac's direction. Erica was reluctant to let go but was pried away as Allison wrapped her arms around Erica's waist.

Lydia joked that Erica wouldn't need to wait for Boyd to kiss someone at midnight and earned a scowl from both her and Allison and looks of keened interest from Jackson and Stiles – looks that earned both of them a smack on the nose and a wink from Erica.

Derek let out a growl but Jackson just grinned while Lydia told him to stop thinking about it or he would be going to bed alone that night.

Isaac held Scott in his arms, swaying slowly despite the fast paced beat. As they waited for the countdown Isaac mouthed the three little words that he meant more than any other and Scott closed his eyes, leaning into his with their cheeks together.

As doubtful as he had been about this whole rave thing it ended up being better than he had pictured. Not that it mattered, so long as the night ended with him wrapped up in Isaac's arms then he could have been anywhere.

The DJ stilled the music, the numbers booming loudly through the speakers.

Ten…

Nine…

"Promise me you'll still love me next year?" Isaac said in a whisper.

Scott smiled, kissing his cheek.

Six…

Five…

"Seriously? You need to ask?" He said as he cupped his face with his hand and stroked his jaw.

Three…

Two…

"No, but I need to hear it." He whispered back and with one final number Scott pulled his lips into him, missing the yelling of New Years and wanting to kiss him one last time that year and continue on until the next.

Time went past them in slow motion as they shared that moment. It was as if no one else could see them, alone in their world and consumed with nothing but their love for one another in that instant.

All around them the other couples began to celebrate the transition – Stiles and Derek shared a kiss so hard they could have melted into one another, Lydia and Jackson shared a tender embrace, a rare occasion for the man who could act so careless, Allison and Erica pressed the corners of their lips together and held one another in a tight grip as they laughed, Danny and Ethan's smiles were visible even through the tightness of their lips, and Daisy leant up, placing a cautious kiss on the side of Boyd's lips before turning away and looking back to see his eyes still following her.

When he lost her in the crowd he turned back to the group, walked towards his friends and scooped up Allison and Erica in his arms, swinging them around in a big circle as their laughter filled the air around them.

Scott was the only thing that consumed Isaac's mind, the only thing that he could think about until a scent caught in his nose, something so familiar and yet he couldn't put his finger on it. He turned in its direction but almost as soon as it was there it was gone.

"What is it?" Scott asked, pulling his face back towards him.

"I thought…" He began but shook his head as if to rid it of the thoughts that had invaded him. He turned back to Scott with a smile. "Nothing, absolutely nothing." He said, kissing Scott again and losing himself completely, forgetting all about that familiar scent.

Instead he went about the night like he had planned to, never wanting it to end and hoping that their elation never would.

If he had known what it was to bring, he may not have dismissed it with such ease.

**A/N: Please leave comments to let me know what you think!**


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